July 22, 2007
Trees, Meet Forest
Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues.
Not too long ago this site, along with the D.C. Council and much of the rest of the Washington area, was actively debating the incentive package for the new Washington Nationals stadium. At the time I was well aware of the questions about costs and benefits and was familiar with research on the subject suggesting that new stadia did not boost metropolitan economic performance (although baseball stadiums do tend to outperform those built for other sports, perhaps because they are in use more often). I nonetheless thought that the stadium might be a good idea, and one of the reasons, aside from my baseball fandom, was the role it might play in chasing metropolitan dollars—in shifting, that is, more suburban revenue into the District.
Whatever the arguments and outcomes of the stadium deal, it’s interesting to look at the position in which we found ourselves when we were still debating it. At a metropolitan level, the decision to build a stadium was probably, at least in strict economic terms, a wash, but when one introduces jurisdictional boundaries the chance to enhance the District’s relative position within the metro area suddenly makes the decision more rational.
The stadium deal is hardly the lone example of such a situation; at the moment, another is rising just outside the Capital Beltway in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The business Disneyland at National Harbor might end up being revenue gold for Prince George’s County, but it’s hard to imagine what more the developers might have done to offset the benefits of the project with regional costs. National Harbor promises to snarl traffic along the I-95/495 corridor, and the decision to build far away from Metro means that automobile alternatives are practically nil and that traveler trips and spending outside the compound will be sharply limited. (While a water taxi to Old Town is a great idea, it would take a second Miracle at Dunkirk to shift a meaningful amount of commerce over the river via boat).
Worst of all for the District, the National Harbor investment in convention space and hotels greatly limits the value of D.C.’s own new and expensive convention center and its associated hotels. It also increases the likelihood that the District and Prince George’s will waste valuable time and money throwing incentives after conventions, all in an effort to shift dollars from one side of the District line to the other.
These are just two small and discrete examples of one of the most serious planning problems facing Greater Washington: the failure to plan regionally. Other competitive actions operate continuously throughout the metropolitan area, leading to questionable distributions of people and jobs and causing an unfortunate amount of money to be spent on fights over the existing economic pie rather than on efforts to make the pie bigger.
Picture taken by iceman882.
For the farthest flung counties in Virginia and Maryland, the incentive for local leaders is to attract people and businesses into their borders, to bring the economic activity and associated tax revenue of the metro area out until they can also take a chunk. Good for them, but not for the region as a whole. As the metro area grows outward, infrastructure dollars are spread ever thinner, new roads soak up dollars that could be used to improve older, busier ones and provide transit alternatives. More residents live outside the reach of effective transit. Because the farthest flung counties tend to have the laxest development rules, growth occurs haphazardly, defying efforts to plan for efficient land use.
Closer in, counties already swelled by growth face their own set of incentives. Having gotten too big too fast for their limited infrastructure, they pull the ladder up after themselves, cutting growth sharply. While this might make perfect sense for an individual county, it’s hard on the metro area. When growth in new housing slows or stops, home prices begin to creep upward. Limited supply and rising prices cause new development to leapfrog slow growth counties, pushing out into the exurbs and contributing to sprawl, congestion, and extreme commutes.
Transportation planning has long been constrained by provincial selfishness. In hindsight, the decision to build freeways into the District seems like a poor one, as far as D.C. was concerned; by making it very easy to live outside the city and commute in, freeways encouraged many people—shockingly—to move out of the District and commute in. Virginia and Maryland seem to have learned the lesson well. While each state sends a quarter of a million workers into D.C. everyday, neither state seems all that interested in improving the quality of those trips, which are subject to steadily worsening bottlenecks. Road and rail priorities in Virginia and Maryland focus squarely on projects involving movement around the suburbs, leaving commuters into the District (to say nothing of those traveling within the District) in the lurch. Even if D.C. could strike some sort of bargain with inward commuters, using taxes or tolls to pay for improvements in their commutes, the competitive nature of Washington planning would reduce the benefits of any such agreement. With Virginia and Maryland all too happy to drag jobs farther and farther out into the suburbs, any deal raising the cost of travel in the center would simply provide an opportunity for those states to try to recruit people and jobs away from D.C. and into suburban counties.
In too many ways to count, the rational actions of individual places reduce the welfare of the metropolitan area as a whole, and these decisions continue to be made because there is so little coordination at a regional level. It’s maddening to local observers; millions of workers daily stream across state and county borders to work, play, and shop, and yet those counties and states govern as if they existed entirely in a vacuum.
As Steven Pearlstein noted this week, this illusion of isolation has strong effects on efforts to improve quality of life policies as well. It’s overwhelmingly clear that the best way to reduce the metro area’s carbon footprint is to shift more workers into the center of the region, and especially into the District. Every person who moves from the suburbs into the District reduces the metro area’s average gasoline consumption, and every move in the other direction raises it. Looking at regional transportation planning, one would never, ever guess that encouraging population growth in the center might have this outcome.
Affordable housing plans also fall apart given jurisdictional competition. As I noted a few weeks ago, a housing voucher program that didn’t apply to the metro area as a whole would be sharply less effective than one that did. The same is true for a host of poverty programs; it’s hard to marshal public support for District programs when those that benefit most from those programs often leave the District for the suburbs, taking the gains from public investment with them. It’s also clear that the broader the base of those programs, the more substantial will be the resources behind them and the opportunities available to those in them. And to be perfectly fair, the suburban jurisdictions probably know this. They probably realize that it is in their long term interest to work with the District on addressing problems like poverty and affordable housing, but lack of coordination prevents individual counties from making good on their intentions. Unless every county contributes to regional solutions, those that do are hurting themselves competitively, throwing local tax dollars at solutions on which non-participants can free ride. Every city, county, and district in the area may want to work together, but without a framework for coordinated action, the incentive for each is to look out for number one and number one only.
There is evidence that even modest efforts to promote regionalism can have big effects. To many, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority may seem an unconstitutional and undemocratic manifestation of Richmond’s failure to govern well. Still, the NVTA has begun allocating funds for Metro and VRE, promising a long term commitment to infrastructure projects that benefit places beyond those with NVTA membership. When one reads Zach Schrag’s The Great Society Subway, it’s easy to see all the ways that regional cooperation led to the construction of an imperfect subway system, and yet cooperation led to the construction of the subway system -- one of the great triumphs in the history of Washington and one which continues to pay dividends to every jurisdiction throughout the area.
Not every decision needs to be made regionally. As a Washingtonian, I certainly appreciate the fact that my government can make decisions on policies concerning immigration and civil rights, among other things, independently of the suburbs, and I’m sure Virginians and Marylanders feel the same way. But there’s no avoiding the fact that making decisions on development and transportation planning in a vacuum costs the metro area dearly. Individual jurisdictions routinely undermine the efforts and investments of their neighbors, so rational planning for new growth becomes impossible. But what can be done? A brief search of Washington Post articles containing the names Fenty, Kaine, and O’Malley turns up promises to cooperate on security, but little else. Pearlstein advocates greater responsibility for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, something I’ve argued for before. It sounds lovely, but where will the pressure to give that body more power come from? Who is demanding more regional interaction? Practically no one, as far as I can see.
The NVTA offers some hope. Northern Virginia seems increasingly willing to look at itself and to govern as a whole. At the same time, Arlington and Alexandria, as dense and central locations, share many common interests with the District. If the NVTA can begin thinking beyond county borders and can see itself as part of a metro region, it may serve as an example of how regional bodies can improve overall planning.
I’m as guilty as anyone at encouraging the District to respond to silence from our neighboring states by putting our own local development first, but somewhere along the line either voters or their leaders need to begin pushing for a broader perspective. It’s foolish to throw money away because we can’t find avenues for cooperative planning. We all ought to be livid at the lack of coordination. The Washington area can do much, much better.
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If regional concerns were being considered, would the line to Dulles really be the next line built? I doubt it. Decoupling the orange and blue lines would probably be next, which is exactly why regional decisions won't be made without external (Federal) pressure. Why else would Virginia do something that only helps it a little?
I hope DC is able to bring a solution to keep the United MLS team in the District. As Ryan suggests, stadia may not be the best allocation of resources when looking at it on a micro level, but the difference between DC and places like Pittsburgh is its status as an independant city/taxing entity. Suburban Pittsburghers are not pumping new dollars to Harrisburg. Suburban MD and VA fans are pumping new dolalrs to DC.
At the last public meeting about the new DC United stadium, the team owners were literally shouted down by Ward 8 residents, including one who yelled out "Who cares about soccer?" For reasons that defy logic, some Ward 8 residents are opposed to the DC United developing the currently abandoned and unusable Poplar Point site at no cost to the city. I suppose a trash strewn empty lot is better than a stadium, hotel, and viable businesses.
I can't imagine DC United will take this much longer, especially when the bulk of their fan base comes from the suburbs. At some point they will find a nice parcel in Fairfax County, build out there, and be done once and for all with DC. Just like Jack Kent Cooke did with the Redskins. While DC postured, and debated, and talked (again about a stadium to be built with 100% private money) PG County stepped up and got the Redskins.
So National harbor will snarl traffic and limit the value of places in the city with solid public transportation? I don’t buy it. Business travelers book in the city on a Metro line and go outside of it when they must due to cost.
hear hear! great commentary this week. Unfortunately, this type of situation is a "tragedy of the commons" that plays itself out with alarming frequency across the country. Solutions, anyone?
to guest #3,
often times it is about a stadium being in a centrally located place. DC is that place.
And, DC United wants to be in DC.
See this WTOP piece just today:
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1196718
And lastly, the Redskins' current location sucks.
The dearth of regional planning flows from the same me-first mindset that made "the tragedy of the commons" a working model. This is easy to recognize and avoidable, but we lack the institutions and structure to avoid individual decisions that harm the region as a collective.
These are one important thing DC lost when it gained Home Rule.
I fear we won't get them back without some regional emergency (and then it'd be too late), or some combination of a congressional vote and/or commuter tax reciprocity.
'Till then, I'm expecting it'll continue to be every jurisdiction for themselves.
Damn. Loganite beat me to my "tragedy of the commons" observation. Since this is so, let me extend by noting Jared Diamond notes the "benevolent dictator" is a cure. Thing is, benevolence is in short supply these days, and benevolence is usually considered subjective, anyway. But for transportation planning, that's what a empowered federal (or regional) authority would need to be.
I was just driving over the WW bridge into PG and was amazed at the national harbor site and the potential it has.....but I couldnt help but look over to the left at the Oxon Hill farm site which is about 5 times bigger than national harbor......just think if PG was successful in developing that site also.....jeez louise....that could be a great location for a new redskins stadium and maybe a new aquarium (think georgia aquarium) along with retail / office /residential.... if PG developed that site in conjunction with DC developing DC village, the southern DC/PG area has the potential to one of the most beautiful gateways into a city in the world......
"if PG developed that site in conjunction with DC developing DC village, the southern DC/PG area has the potential to one of the most beautiful gateways into a city in the world"
Wow, 11:32. You must not get out to many cities in the rest of the world. The day that Epcot convention center on the banks of the Potomac is more beautiful than, say, the approach to Venice or a ride up the Seine, is the day that there's actually a Georgetown Metro stop.
to guest 6,
The Redskins location may suck for you, but it is a gold mine for Snyder and the team. The stadium still sell out, there is a waiting list for tickets, and Snyder reaps money of parking that he would otherwise lose to Metro. There is a reason that the Redskins are considered the most valuable sports franchise in the country and it isn't because Dan Snyder is a bad businessman. Bad football mind, yes, but the guy knows how to make money.
As for DC United, I am sure they would rather be in DC, Jack Kent Cooke desperately wanted to be in DC, but at some point a smart businessman has to simply throw up his hands and make a move. DC United needs a new stadium somewhere. If DC can't make it happen, then DC will lose out. The United aren't going to wait forever until the "leaders" of Ward 8 decide that a free stadium, hotel, retail district, and park is better than an abandoned lot.
I am no a MLS or DC United Fan, but I hope for the sake of DC they get this deal done. Sadly, however, I've lived in this city long enough to not put my faith in any decision involving both Marion Barry and storefront-church pastors from SE.
It's not the leaders of Ward 8 that's holding this stadium up. There is a vocal minority of citizens that would oppose just about anything that sounds halfway decent.
The ball is truly in the court of the Executive Office of the Mayor. And, then that points directly to Fenty-appointed Neil Albert and his Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic development. I don't know much about him, but he does not strke me instantly as a savvy deal-maker. Maybe I'm wrong.
If DC ever wants to see Poplar Point developed after the land transfer is complete in the Fall of this year, they will have to spend the money on the necessary infrastructure to get the job done to bring development, stadium included or not.
OR, we can let it sit like it is for the next 10 years while DC ponders where it is getting the $200 million from to do the necessary road improvements, sewage, and electricity.
They will have to do it anyway. DC United just wants that money to be committed right now. My take is DC is not totally ready to make that commitment. And, if they aren't, then be prepared for Poplar Point to stay exactly like it is right now for a long, long time!
You're right in that a smart businessman will go elsewhere.
"if PG developed that site in conjunction with DC developing DC village, the southern DC/PG area has the potential to one of the most beautiful gateways into a city in the world"
"Wow, 11:32. You must not get out to many cities in the rest of the world. The day that Epcot convention center on the banks of the Potomac is more beautiful than, say, the approach to Venice or a ride up the Seine, is the day that there's actually a Georgetown Metro stop."
Reid has got a point on this one. lol. and, I'll take it a step further..... if there is ever a Georgetown stop, National Harbor still won't compare.
Let's get specific. Are you talking about a PANYNJ, here, or a GLA? And if I throw my support behind a regional coordinating body, will District residents finally stop treating me like a contemptible racist parasite simply because I happen to live south of the Potomac? Hardly seems worth it otherwise.
#9, don't touch Oxon Hill Farm. It stays, as-is, in perpetuity.
DC must get past the point where we let a few loudmouth 'community activists' shouting nonsense at a community meeting dictate policy to us.
Poplar Point has the potential to bring in tens of millions a year in tax money.
I'd imagine the 'community activists' are also demanding additional community services, like public housing, better health care coverage from the city, etc.
Exactly how do they think these sorts of services are paid for?
It never ceases to amaze me.
DC cannot be run on the revenue from a few nail salons, liquor stores, and the income taxes of a few rich folks in Georgetown.
Public housing complexes on prime riverfront property (which is essentially what the community activists are demanding) is just about the stupidest thing the city could do. It'd be a dangerous slum within two years, and it'd be yet another huge revenue drain. And that area is already stacked to the rafters with public housing.
So enough already.
Hillman,
While I appreciate your point about 'community activists'; is it possible, however unlikely, that these folks are presenting an alternate point of view that should be considered in our endless rush to develop every parcel of land in the District?
I've got no love for the so-called 'poverty pimps' and hypocritical Bible banging preachers, but people don't stay poor just because they're stupid, lazy, and don't want anything more out of life. There are systematic, structural forces that keep a lot of people in poverty despite their best efforts. It's not as simple as "poor people suck, they deserve nothing and no consideration"; which is what you seem to be saying.
Peace,
HR
Why is there so much disdain for "community activists" seeking public housing handouts? How are they any different from wealthy sports franchise owners doing the same?
"The United aren't going to wait forever until the "leaders" of Ward 8 decide that a free stadium, hotel, retail district, and park is better than an abandoned lot. "
It's not "free" though, everything you described will cost the District in excess of $200 million, and there are no guarantees that that money will be made up anytime soon.
"DC cannot be run on the revenue from a few nail salons, liquor stores, and the income taxes of a few rich folks in Georgetown."
That's laughable. Check out the skyrocketing tax assessments for many small business owners all throughout the District--increases of 500% and more. City services and improvements are being paid by District citizens alright, but hardly on the backs of the Georgetown elite.
hillrat,
What realistic "alternative view" is being presented by those opposed to the DC United stadium?
The reality is that developers are not lining up to build east of the river. Without the DC United deal NOTHING will get done. Poplar Point will remain as it is today, an abandoned trash strewn eyesore. But I guess that is better than a soccer stadium, a hotel, and a dining-retail district.
How about a check cashing place, a bullet-proof window take out, and a hair braiding salon? Guess what, that is the only development you will ever see in SE unless the city MAKES something happen.
to 21
What makes you think the proposed commercial development you would be any less of an eyesore?
and btw, it' FOOTBALL, or FÚTBOL... a bunch of gabachos up in here
pardon me for thinking that a group of new buildings, filled with people having fun (at a sporting event, or shopping, or eating out) is less of an eyesore than an abandoned piece of land filled with broken shopping carts and other garbage. I guess I'm not hip enough to see how that is better than say, a new hotel which will actually attract people to the area.
Regional coordination is key, and I would never argue otherwise. However, DC needs to realize that it is the 800 pound gorilla in the region, and it needs to step up and act like it. The counter-arguments to the stadium are distractions and excuses for people to get up and arms about all of society's problems. If we allow these distractions to influence our decisions that have significant impacts on the future of DC's econonic outlook, the problem will only get worse as all of the surrounding areas, who are looking out for themselves, will be only too eager to step up to the plate while the district balks yet again. The leadership needs to step up, and grow a pair, and makes decisions that benefit DC, not a vocal minority who can't see the forest for the trees.
Why is it either or between neglected urban blight or some stadium/retail development paradigm? I'd settle for an ounce of genuine vision, rather than the same tired development plans that don't really serve the intended beneficiaries. "Grow a pair" -- you mean ignore your constituents and capitulate to your commercial real estate development constituency? How Anthony Williams of you! That seems like the exact opposite of owning a pair.
I'd tell you many games DC United plays per year, but I genuinely don't know. If you took of poll of DC residents, I'd wager the number of people who don't know is significantly higher than than those who do know. I won't even get into who can explain offsides.
guest 21 - F*&k if I know, but is it too much to ask that we consider the possibility that this isn't just some sort of shakedown or narrow-minded provincial objection? Maybe you think folks over in Ward 8 should just start shufflin' their feet and saying, "OK, yes massa!" when there is some sort of proposed development in the area?
Why all the objection to a little debate on the issue; if you're (this is the royal you, not guest 21) so sure that you've got the right idea then why not listen to people's objections and address them in a forthright manner?
The developers are asking the city to pony up $200M now. Those are funds that are going to have to be diverted from somewhere else and are not going to be addressing the problems we have now. I'm well aware that the city will almost certainly recoup their initial investment many times over, but when will that happen? Ten, twenty, thirty years from now?
Hey, I could care less if the stadium goes in Ward 8, but I care a lot that it happens somewhere in the District. The Ward boundaries are supposed to delineate representation, not the kind of provincial turf-fighting over real estate that we are now seeing. Ward 8 doesn't want it. Ok, fine, on to the next. But collectively the DC govt needs to realize it's in everyone's best interests to keep the stadium in DC, and work out the details amongst themselves. If each Ward thinks "locally" on an equal basis with the surrounding suburban counties, we're gonna be in trouble. DC needs to "grow a pair" and operate as a single entity with a common goal of prosperity and maintaining itself as a center of job growth and residency.
Can't we just recycle the previous few years' comments on the other stadium debate? It's not like the arguments seem to have changed.
hillrat,
I fail to see how Ward 8 residents could lose on this deal. The costs will be borne by the entire city, not just Ward 8.
Right now Ward 8 residents have in Poplar Point an abandoned lot filled with trash. Under this plan they will get a stadium, a riverfrong park, a hotel, new stores and new restaurants. In addition, Ward 8 kids will get to use the new soccer facility and the clinics, etc that the United will host. Soccer is the most popular sport for kids in America, and this plan will allow kids in Ward 8 to get involved in that sport (much like the tennis center in Ward 8 has done).
Also, Ward 8 residents will get priority for jobs building and working in the new hotel. so lets recap. Ward 8 gets, a new riverfron park, access to a sport for their kids, and jobs. Sounds terrible to me.
Tell me again, what does Ward 8 want? Someone to come in and with 100% of their own money build an auto factory to provide unskilled workers with $35 an hour jobs with benefits and reitrement? There hasn't been one of those built in the US in 50 years, so if you are holding out for that, you can enjoy the next half-century of trash strewn lots and having to cross the Anacostia River to go to work, buy something nice, or eat at a restaurant that doesn't also sell fake roses with crack pipe stems.
maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like the city will have to "pony up" the $200 million for infrastructure (roads, sewers, etc.) for any developer that may use the land.
guest 29 - I'm not saying that I think this is bad deal for Ward 8, only that we should give people's objections a fair hearing.
Perhaps the people protesting want the egress to be from the east instead of the west to preserve some historical landmark or want something that's there to be incorporated into the complex. Maybe someone just wants to get a few snouts in the trough for no-show jobs. If it turns out to be the same shady preachers and poverty pimps trotting out the same tired ass bromides and racial hysteria broadsides, then f&^k 'em and let's move forward. But until we (the city, developers, and chattering classes) listen to what's being said, we won't know for sure.
Quoth DCist Ryan:
"Sane growth of the Metro area demands the establishment of a cross-jurisdictional coordinating entity. We need to stop thinking as individual municipalities and start working together as one, or things are going to get much worse."
Quoth the DCist Readers:
"Blah blah blah Poplar Point blah blah blah D.C. United blah blah blah Ward 8."
So concludeth the discussion.
HillRat:
I haven't been to said community meetings, but nearly every report I've read said the 'community activists' are pissed because it's soccer and they don't play soccer and because they are demanding 'affordable housing', which is code for Section 8 housing (apparently the inclusion of hundreds of units of workforce housing on the soccer site wasn't good enough for them).
Yes, that's right. Section 8 waterfront housing. In a ward that is made up almost exclusively of only poor and lower middle class people now.
Not exactly a recipe for improvement.
And your blanket statement about poor people sucking and that we should do nothing to help that you attribute to me is a bit silly. I've never said anything of the kind. I've said that a whole bunch of public policies aimed to help poor people actually do the exact opposite.
But, yes, by and large many of DC's problems can be directly linked to people not taking responsibility for their own lives, expecting government or someone else to foot their bills forever, and believing they are magically entitled to a life free from work or anything unpleasant.
If we lived in downtown Bugtussle and we had 100 poor people fighting over the three existing jobs, then I'd have sympathy. But we don't live in Bugtussle. We live in a fairly large city, where employers are begging for workers. The region's unemployment is below 5 percent. It's a very strong job market.
Yet many able-bodied DC residents that could work don't bother to try to find work or to in any way better themselves if it involves significant effort.
And for that I have no sympathy.
HillRat:
From what I understand the millions the city has to pony up have to be done regardless if any real development is done there. You have to build roads, sewer, etc., pretty much no matter what goes there.
Even for acres more Section 8 housing (nearly guaranteed to become unsafe and hellish within three years).
And I learned a long time ago that 'community activists' often don't represent the actual residents of the area.
Quoth Anonymous Idiot #32:
"I have nothing to add to the conversation."