[quote=briansd1][quote=bearishgurl] The exurban dwellers HATE commuting on 2-4 lane country roads for 30-45 mins JUST to reach a fwy to the DC area but will NOT move their families closer to DC – not even to Montgomery County. [/quote]
That’s the trade off they make. It’s a free country. We, collectively, don’t need to make it easy for them to commute to the metro area.
If we improve the housing stock and provide more physical comforts in the city, people will reexamine the trade-offs. We can think of that as market-based competition to provide the right balance of physical comforts and urban convenience.[/quote]
The “physical comfort” IS in MD close in to DC, brian. It is in and around the Gaithersburg area (Montgomery Co), Silver Spring and even Chevy Chase and Bethesda – all beautiful areas to live in. The large gathering I attended where I heard all this “cocktail talk” was in a semi-rural town in Frederick Co where there were many “refugees” in attendance from those above-mentioned areas. From their conversations, I was able to discern that they fled their hometowns (the above areas) before or after their kids started school (and sometimes before they started middle school). They came to Frederick Co for the lot sizes and “presumably” better schools but many didn’t realize what a headache their commuting life would be on a daily basis. Some moved to the boonies BEFORE it turned into infinite exurbia and before those back roads were filled with all that daily traffic.
I don’t know if there are actually “school scores” in MD but would surmise the public schools are pretty good close to DC. My gut tells me the REAL reason all these families fled their hometowns was to purchase a newer McMansion on a 1/2 AC lot in exurbia for the same price as a 2000 sf older home on a 7500 sf lot in the close-in burbs. These are the same reasons families give for “fleeing” the city and inner suburbs here. The only difference is east coast v. west coast house styles (and larger avg lot sizes in MD “exurbia”).
Note: MD natives often stay there for life and bring their kids up +/- 50 mi from where they themselves grew up. It is like TX and OK in that regard.
