Take me down to the parasite city (Our own Rome without the architecture)

Washington Examiner ^ | August 6, 2012 | Gene Healy

[C19fan]

Have you seen the latest jobs report? Major buzzkill: creeping unemployment, anemic growth, and the recovery's totally stalled.

But not here: The District is booming! "Washington may have the healthiest economy of any major metropolitan area in the country," says New York Times D.C. bureau chief David Leonhardt in Sunday's Gray Lady. "You can actually see the prosperity"!

Yes we can! Construction cranes dominate the downtown skyline, and your average homeless guy can barely grab a stretch of sidewalk before yet another boutique store pops up to bounce his bedroll.

[C19fan]

Many of our best and brightest instead of producing something new or better have become a Mandarian class. What is the use of education, as in Imperial China, when except for creating paperwork or being better at rent seeking it does nothing productive.

[muawiyah]

DC is a 10X10 mile area ~ most of the federal workforce DOES NOT LIVE IN DC ~

The largest population center in the region is Fairfax County, VA, the second largest is Montgomery County, MD, then Prince George's County, Alexandria VA, Arlington VA, and I think Howard County, MD.

Most of the federal work force doesn't even live in the Greater Metropolitan area.

At the moment the major construction projects are taking place OUTSIDE of DC. Several were recently completed ~ down the street from me in fact.

The purpose of most of them is simple ~ provide a buffer zone between the agency and its employees and mad bombers on the streets.

BTW, even the FBI Headquarters is falling down and it too may relocate to my neighborhood.

40 years ago the biggest deal in this area was the largest wood roofed building in the world AND a go kart track.

50 years ago they started work on the Beltway ~ that goes through here. It's gotten bigger, but not better.

Regarding boutique shops, haven't seen one open in a new location in DC in several decades. DC, in fact, only recently got it's first permanent grocery store ~ they'd all moved out due to robberies and murders a long time ago. Shopping is the pits in DC. You have to go to MD or DC for that.

[pgkdan]

Have to diagree with your comment in the title. The Distric has some great architecture. If nothing else, arcitecture is what we got right in our capital. The Capital, White House, Library of Congress, Suprem Court, the various memorials and monuments. Not to mention other sites like the Masonic Temple, The National Basillica Shrine of the Immacuate Conception, and on and on.

[paul51]

the only thing that DC has is a direct pipeline to taxpayer money. crooked politicians, all their cronies and hanger ons.....they couldn't have built it without the taxpayer. No matter how bad the economy the politicians take care of themselves and theirs first. This should surprise no one.

[sphinx]

DC’s first permanent grocery? I’ve been shopping at the same Safeway for over 30 years. There are some poorly served areas for all the usual low income neighborhood reasons, but in general we have plenty of groceries. Other retail is a mix; we’ve lost the downtown department stores other than Macy’s, but other sectors are holding up ok. What we don’t have are suburban style shopping malls and big box stores. My guess is that parking constraints are the biggest reason. The District’s small size is also a factor. As a Capitol Hill resident, I head to Pentagon City or Potomac Yards for a lot of routine shopping. I don’t even consider that to be leaving town, as they are just a short jump over the bridge.

[hal ogen]

Ci9tizen, that is your tax money at work. There is nothing to see here...move along.

[muawiyah]

It was down to KOC being the largest remaining grocery store in DC ~ in L’Enfant Plaza ~ that DC line means something. Maybe you aren’t leaving the urbanized area when you got to Virginia but you can strap on your holster, carry your guns openly, and be a free person in VA. You still can’t quite do that in DC or MD.

[TurboZamboni]

“Amerika’s nomenklatura”
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=528809

For those who remember the old Soviet Union, it was a grim place — at least for average citizens. But not so for those in government. Contrary to the official ideals of equality and a classless society that the ruling communist regime espoused, the USSR created a privileged class of party members inside government — the nomenklatura.

This semipermanent bureaucracy earned higher incomes, got better health care, ate better food and had greater job security than average Russians, the much-despised proletarians. Today, our bloated federal government seems, in significant ways, to be creating this same dynamic.