Comments on: Washington Metroplex Keeps Expanding

By: oldtom

oldtom — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 23:50:58 +0000

How about starting a process to move Dept's out of the DC area?
Interior to N/S Dakota or Wyoming
Agriculture to Kansas, Nebraska
HUD to Detroit, Cleveland, Gary, IN areas
Energy to LA,NM or TX
VA to Northern CA, TX, Western PA or Northern NY State

Or sub-depts, eg ICE to a border state, near the border (which leaves out CA due to costs)

Phase it in to avoid paying relo/disruption. We have the technology to telecommute.Demand x free seats from Airlines that pass pension plans to the Feds. Keep liason offices in DC.

Use BRAC bases?

Was that a pig that just flew by?

By: denise

denise — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 23:19:33 +0000

This is one reason I will stay in Wichita, Kansas. You can live in a nice older neighborhood in a nice house that costs around $140,000 and have a 10-minute drive to downtown. Or you can live in a really nice outlying neighborhood and have a 20-minute drive from your really nice $250,000 house.

And then when you want the amenities of DC or NY or LA, you can fly there (and you can drive to the Wichita airport in about 15 minutes too). It's expensive to fly out of here, but you make up for it in less than one mortgage payment.

By: Jonk

Jonk — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 22:35:05 +0000

Housing costs in DC are a joke, a bad joke -- 800k for a brick and block rambler in NOVA is a bit over the top. I don't know how most government workers are supposed to make it.

I expect a mini-crash in the area when a lot of the contracting work dries out when an attempt is made to actually balance the budget...but the damage is already done, and for the most part there is no going back.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:39:59 +0000

If I could telecommute, this would certainly be an attractive option. Unfortunately, I cannot do it. Yet...

By: DC Loser

DC Loser — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:36:49 +0000

That commute may be only an hour, but that's at 4 a.m. If she leaves at 6 a.m., the drive will be more like 2 hours. I-95 is a parking lot from Fredericksburg all the way to the 14 St. Bridge into DC. Even the HOV lanes are now clogged due to cheaters and hybrids using those lanes.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:07:32 +0000

McG: Yep, property taxes in these parts are a bear.

DCL: Agreed. Metro is probably better than the NYC subways where you can get it but the vast majority of the people around here don't live within walking distance of a Metro stop.

By: DC Loser

DC Loser — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:04:36 +0000

At least in NYC, the long commute is made bearable by a great public transit network. You can sleep or read on the train or bus. In DC, the trains are few and far in between so you're left stuck on the road.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 17:56:31 +0000

My wife's not going to be happy about this -- her family has roots in Caroline County and one of her mother's cousins owns a farm the family's owned since (I believe) antebellum days.

Property taxes have already been a burden on keeping that land.

By: yetanotherjohn

yetanotherjohn — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 16:55:18 +0000

The longest commute I have ever had was about 20 minutes and I thought that was to long. I work from home now, so have a 15 second commute up the stairs. This is just crazy. If you take out 8 hours to sleep, 8 hours for work, then a 2 hour commute is a fourth of "your time".