Moco Map of the Week--Percent Non-family Households by Census Tract

Today's map shows the distribution of non-family households.  According to the census a non-family household is any household headed by a single person or containing multiple people who are not related, married, or in a common law marriage.

30.6% of Montgomery County residents lives in non-family households.  There is, however, considerable variation across the county's census tracts.  The census tract with the lowest percent of non-family households is 7.6%.  The tract with the highest is 74.9%.

So, how does MOCO stack up to the state?  The US as a whole?  Turns out we have fewer non-family households than either Maryland (32.9%) or the US (57.7%).

Several patterns stand out on today's map.  First, the county's non-family households are concentrated along two main roads. The biggest concentration is along I-270, a major interstate and also the county's urban spine.  Non-family households are also concentrated along Columbia Pike/US 29.  Although the Pike isn't as urbanized as the I-270 corridor, it is urbanizing at a steady clip.  These patterns aren't too surprising.  Urban areas tend to have more non-family households than rural areas do. 

Second, there are also high concentrations of non-family households inside the beltway.  In fact, the tract with the highest percentage of non-family households is in the heart of Bethesda, in the Woodmont Triangle area.  74.9% of households in this tract are non-family.  In a lot of ways, this part of Bethesda looks a lot like gentrifying neighborhoods in DC where a flood of millennials have moved in.  However, it is worth noting that the tract (7032.18) with the second highest percentage of non-family households is well north of the beltway.  It contains Leisure World, an age-restricted (i.e. adults only) community. 

Change Comes to Downtown Bethesda's Northern Tip

I went for a birthday dinner on the northern edge of downtown Bethesda this weekend.  It looks like change is coming to the more chilled out part of Bethesda proper.

Here are some pics from the corner of Woodmont Avenue and Battery Lane.  A new mixed use complex is coming to what is now a giant pit in the ground framed by some big arse, impressive cranes!   Right now, the bottom floor will be occupied by upscale grocer Harris Teeter with upper floors set aside for rental housingoverpriced apartments for millennials.   

For those not familiar with Bethesda, here's a map, and a wee bit of explanation.  The entertainment district in Bethesda is centered around Bethesda Row (which sits on Woodmont Avenue between Elm St. and Bethesda Ave.).  There's a movie theatre, a Barnes and Noble and several local and national Chains in the area. 

However, if you head north on Woodmont the chain restaurants slowly give way to more unique fare.  It is still a high end area--no doubt about it--but it feels more organic and less contrived than Bethesda Row.  Perhaps the fact that the existing apartments in the area to the northwest are older, low to mid-rise, and sometimes subsidized helps.

But, if the mixed use center set to open up at Woodmont and Battery Lane is any indication, that might change.  Higher density tends to bring more options for eating, drinking, and shopping, but it also tends to bring on the high priced generic.  And, the income level of new arrivals isn't likely to counter that trend.  If there's one thing the DMV's developers won't build these days it is affordable (or even middle class) housing.  It is a luxury or bust market.    

I'll keep taking pics so readers can follow the progress. 

Branding your 'hood--White Flint Edition

According to an article in Monday's Washington Post, White Flint is going to get a new name.  For readers outside the area, White Flint is wedged between Bethesda, a suburb that looks like a city, and Rockville, another suburb that looks like a city.  White Flint is flatter (fewer tall buildings) and less urban (more strip malls and parking lots).  But, it is ready for a make-over.  White Flint's main attraction--a 1980s era mall--was recently torn down, and the county hopes to redevelop the site and surrounding areas for greater density and walkability. 

So far so good.

Except for that 'pesky' name.  Apparently, 'White Flint' doesn't evoke much beyond the mall of the same name they recently tore down.  If the area's going to change, its name needs to capture those changes.  Or so say the developers.      

I get it.  I grew up in a neighborhood called Sherwood Forest and my friends lived in developments called Wildwood and Rainbow Forest.  The goal of the developers who built our neighborhoods was to sell the houses in them, and one way to do that was by giving their wider neighborhoods sylvan, vaguely British sounding names.  I say vaguely because I doubt my neighborhood's developer wanted to encourage any real Robin Hood behavior.  My sister, friends and I were as close to a merry band as it got, and the most we took from our neighbors was a little peace and quiet on Saturday mornings.    

In White Flint's case, the name game has higher stakes.  As one developer explained in the Washington Post article, the area needs a new brand to communicate the urban transformation afoot in the area.  

Poor White Flint.  I can see the session with the life coach/therapist now. 

White Flint:  I tore down my Mall!  I'm really making progress!
Life Coach:  Well, none of that matters until you've got a twitter handle to sell it to the people.
White Flint:  How about '#I Tore down my mall!'
Life Coach:  Too negative.  We need something that evokes who you are.
White Flint:  But, I'm White Flint.  Didn't you see my insurance card?
Life Coach:  It isn't about you, its about who people think you are.
White Flint:  I'm White Flint, dammit!
Life Coach:  We're going to have to start meeting twice a week. 

Developers are currently bandying about several possible names, including Pike Corridor, Pike District, Market District, and Slate District. 

Perhaps sensing a lack of inspiration, the County also has a website where you can offer your own new name. 

Here are my suggestions: 

1.  It's always Marsha Marsha Marsha!

2.  Say my name *#%$!

3.  NO, I am NOT trying too hard.

On second thought, how about White Flint?!

 

Some Love for the Purple Line

The Purple Line is one step closer to becoming reality after Wednesday's announcement that the Federal Transit Administration had included the Purple Line on a list of 7 projects slated for "new starts" grants. 

Although the state has been lining up private money for the project, few people believe private money will materialize without federal backing.  In that regard, Wednesday's news can be viewed as an insurance policy of sorts--private money is now more likely and with it so is the purple line.     

Here's the most recent map of the proposed route. 

Of late the coverage about the purple line has focused on its opponents (e.g. the Town of Chevy Chase).  As with any big public works project, though, the goal is to benefit far more people than you disadvantage.  So, what are the benefits of a Purple Line?  Here are two that come to (my) mind:  

1.  The purple line will update the metro system's hub and spoke design.  A hub and spoke network is basically designed to move people from suburb to city (and vice versa).  People that want to go from suburb to suburb don't tend to get much benefit from a hub and spoke system because the spokes only connect through the hub.  If I want to take the metro to go from Silver Spring to Bethesda, for example, I have to go through DC and then back out again.  The distance by road is about 5 miles.  By train it's around 15 miles.  The purple line will provide people going between Maryland's DMV suburbs with another, faster public transportation option.  

2.  Transit beckons development.  Urban planners love something called 'smart growth,' which in the DMV usually translates into building at higher density around transit points.  And, since the fashion these days is the 'mixed use development,' the transit stations along the purple line could see a boost in housing and retail options.  This trend won't have a huge affect in a place like Bethesda, which is already well developed, but stops on the eastern half of the line, where development has been anemic, could really benefit.   

There are, of course, potential downsides.  And, it is worth considering those not normally considered in the papers (i.e. let's stop worrying about those poor wretches with the best legal representation money can buythe Town of Chevy Chase for a minute and think about who else might see less love than pain from the purple line)

1.  The working class Hispanic population.  Let me start with some context.  Most of the transit stops along the proposed purple line are in areas geographers and urban studies types call 'first suburbs.'  The Brookings Institution defines first suburbs with two criteria--they were built before 1950 and are located in counties adjacent to the main city.  In DC this usually means suburbs inside (or touching the beltway).  First suburbs are a study in contradiction.  Some of their neighborhoods are quite posh (Bethesda).  But, some have experienced significant disinvestment (Langley Park).  This is especially true as you move east along the proposed purple line.  This wealth gradient means that housing in MoCo's eastern suburbs and PG county's western suburbs has become an affordable oasis in a metro area where housing prices are ridiculous (see my earlier post on this topic here).  Big stretches of University Boulevard, for example, now have large immigrant populations from Central America.  The area around 'Tick Tock' Liquor store is a veritable little El Salvador.  There are also some amazing Asian and African places tucked in between the pupersaries and Peruvian chicken places.  The boom of immigrants to these areas has made them culturally vibrant places.  Developers coming into these neighborhoods may appreciate this 'diversity' as a selling point, but they probably won't build new houses or apartments for the working class Hispanics already living in the area.  Instead, they'll do what developers in DC have done--aim for the luxury market.  And, that will mean gentrification and displacement.