Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. Things used to be clearer for Fairfax County. It used to be known as the epitome of upper-middle class suburbanity, even earning name-checks in popular novels and songs as such. With acres and acres of rolling hills covered in leafy suburbs and landscaped office parks, it was a quiet complement to the quirky inner suburbs of Northern Virginia and the dense chaos…

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. Summer in Washington means the return of many familiar sights, some welcomed, others not as much. It means baseball, but also sticky heat and humidity. It means evenings at barbecues and bars with outdoor seating, but also children roaming the streets with backpacks full of cherry bombs and bottle rockets. It means, for many of us, time off. For others it means…

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. “Has a second core emerged?” asked a Bureau of Labor Statistics report this week, drawing the metropolitan area’s attention to the remarkable growth in business and professional employment in Virginia’s Fairfax County. Headline after headline emphasized the county’s new status as second pole in a newly bipolar metropolis, after we learned that Fairfax had pulled to within 100,000 jobs of the District…

With all the bad news surrounding Metro recently, it is sometimes tough to remember how much we rely on it. The D.C area has the third highest transit ridership in the country, behind San Francisco and New York, and more than a third of District residents commute on Metro. Possible fare increases, tragic accidents, late, crowded trains, and other gripes are legitimate, but all transit systems have problems. When it comes down to it, Metro…