I occasionally come to the DC metro area on business trips. It is very clear to me that Washington D.C. has gorged itself on revenues from the periphery. During the 2008 recession Washington area malls were just brimming with well-paid federal employees while other areas around the country were nearly left destitute. I don’t blame people for living in the DC area. There is certainly a lot of good opportunities there. People move to the centers of power and wealth.
I drove by our old house in Silver Spring a few years ago. The neighborhood looked the same to me. I did notice that there seemed to be a lot more Asians living there than when I was kid.
Since you are a freeper living in DC, I would be curious to know if your friends are receptive to the conservative viewpoint. Can you talk politics at all with them? I used to have a lot of liberal friends. Some were good conversationalists and some were very open to contrasting opinions. But, for the most part, my liberal friends were very doctrinaire and every bit as inflexible as any crazed cult member. So, most of the time, I avoided discussing politics with them.
My experience with DC liberals is much the same. A lot of them here are professionally involved in politics one way or another. They have been close enough to politicians and campaigns to be appropriately cynical about them; I don’t encounter the hero-worshippers, which is a blessing. But they have an unshakable faith in government, which means that their remedy for every problem is doubling down.