dak4.com - Common sense...

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Doesn't common sense suggest that we cannot grow forever?

I would argue that common sense dictates that we will grow forever, the question is do we want to grow with forethought and wisdom?

We live in the "Greater Washington Area" or perhaps the "Greater Baltimore Washington Area" as the cities collide. The people are coming because we've done a good job building our community and offering what everyone wants. The question is not "do we grow", but "where do we put all of the people". Which begs the question "do we make room in the suburbs, or force people to live in the country side (thus turning the country side into suburbs much father out and ultimately making traffic congestion worse and worse". I would argue that conversion of close-in suburbs to more urban areas is the only wise way to address the increasing population in our greater city area, and deciding to either "just not make room" or "force jobs out to the farther suburbs" are just not dealing with the reality.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008 12:11:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [4] -
eco | rant

Wednesday, August 06, 2008 5:32:44 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Why is making room in the city/ies not an option? As you point out, urban living is the smartest way to deal with population growth -- but why build up the suburbs when there is plenty of room and there are plenty of vacancies in the existing urban areas? Washington, DC was once 800,000 people strong. Since then I am sure hundreds of condos have been built where there were once single family residences. The American mentality that you must have an acre and 10 dogs needs to be changed and people need to realize the advantages of living in an urban environment.

Doug2

Wednesday, August 06, 2008 5:38:35 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Well, it's not an option for Maryland or Montgomery County. We need to deal with the reality we have and not just hope that DC will become so attractive that people won't move to Montgomery County or beyond Montgomery County and drive through it each day. I agree that DC really could use more people and for that it needs to do a bunch of things much better (much of which is already in progress) but that isn't going to address the population growth in communities that are within a few miles of the beltway AND on a metro stop. These communities are very attractive and people will be moving to them, so it's best to prepare and not either pretend it won't happen, or deal with it after it is a mess.

Kearns

Wednesday, August 06, 2008 10:32:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

"Conversion of close-in suburbs to more urban areas" leads to congestion as well. For some time I would commute a few miles straight down one road in Rockville (Randolph/Montrose) and it would often take me 30-40 minutes to get to work. I can't imagine it would get any better with a denser population there. As bad as traffic is on 270 S in the morning, it would not take me much longer than 40 minutes most days to get to Montrose. I'm happy in the "country side" except for the poor choice of Thai and Persian restaurants.

Doug1

Wednesday, August 06, 2008 10:36:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

I agree, there will be congestion, but if we're talking about 17,000 people who can commute from Rockville into the city vs. 17,000 people who can commute from Germantown, I would argue that Rockville will contribute less congestion. And, keep in mind, this is being planned because of the Metro stop right at White Flint, so it is expected that many of those people will be using public transportation.

Kearns

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