Metro Jacksonville

http://www.good.is/post/washington-d-c-offers-12-000-to-people-who-move-near-work?utm_campaign=daily_good&utm_medium=email_daily_good&utm_source=headline_link&utm_content=Washington%2C%20D.C.%20Offers%20%2412%2C000%20to%20People%20Who%20Move%20Near%20Work (http://www.good.is/post/washington-d-c-offers-12-000-to-people-who-move-near-work?utm_campaign=daily_good&utm_medium=email_daily_good&utm_source=headline_link&utm_content=Washington%2C%20D.C.%20Offers%20%2412%2C000%20to%20People%20Who%20Move%20Near%20Work)

QuoteSure, in a perfect world, we'd all live near work. A short commute saves time and money and makes it easy to bike or walk to the office. But in the real world there are lots of factors affecting where we choose to live, and work is only one of them.

Perhaps moving to be near your job would be more appealing if it came with $12,000 dollars. Washington, D.C.'s Office of Planning is launching a pilot program called Live Near Your Work that will match up to $6,000 in incentives that businesses offer to employees to move near work or public transit. The new digs just have to be within two miles of work, within half a mile of a Metro station, or within a quarter mile of a "high-quality" bus corridor. The program has $200,000 to give out in total, which isn't much, but that's just for this initial phase.

If it works, this program could help reduce traffic and pollution in the area, spur an urban revitalization, and improve the quality of life of the people who participate. And with $12,000 in incentives to move and no need to buy $4 gas, you could buy one hell of a bike.

(http://pre.cloudfront.goodinc.com/posts/full_1304629960dcmetro.jpg)

That's a cheaper alternative than building another 9B, Outer Beltway or widening a Blanding Boulevard.

If this program were in Jacksonville is would only encourage more people to live in the southside were the bulk of businesses are now.

Hopefully this excludes member of Congress.

Quote from: iluvolives on May 06, 2011, 09:00:57 AM
If this program were in Jacksonville is would only encourage more people to live in the southside were the bulk of businesses are now.

Jacksonville should implement this type of program for downtown businesses only.  (Yeah like that will ever happen) 

Quote from: iluvolives on May 06, 2011, 09:00:57 AM
If this program were in Jacksonville is would only encourage more people to live in the southside were the bulk of businesses are now.

Yup. This wouldn't work here & would only encourage more sprawl. Between the southside & businesses scattered about everywhere, it wouldn't do anything (this ain't DC, everything is highly condensed there).

You'd have to turn downtown completely around first before you even though about something like this.

yeah if anything then nobody would live downtown because nobody works there.

How about people from out of town? I love D.C.

Quote from: thelakelander on May 06, 2011, 08:54:29 AM
That's a cheaper alternative than building another 9B, Outer Beltway or widening a Blanding Boulevard.

but giving money to people isn't free-market based...building those roads would be  ;)

Quotethis ain't DC, everything is highly condensed there

DC is very sprawled out.  Most everyone lives in Virginia and Maryland and commutes in.  They have an advanced transportation network that one could argue actually encourages sprawl.  Also, in the district you don't have the opportunity to build upwards.

Quote from: JeffreyS on May 06, 2011, 11:40:50 AM
How about people from out of town? I love D.C.

There is a tax credit of up to $5,000 available for first time buyers in the District of Columbia.  This program, first introduced as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 and later extended via the Families Relief Act of 2004 and the Tax Extenders Act of 2009 is targeted at aiding low and moderate income families in purchasing a first home in the District.

Eligibility:

Any first-time buyer in the District, you can even qualify even if you own or previously owned a home in another jurisdiction as long as it is not the District.

Amount of Credit:

Up to $5,000 for married joint-filing taxpayers and $2500 for individual taxpayers

Income Restrictions:

Married joint-filing taxpayers up to $130,000 and individual taxpayers up to $90,000 in modified adjusted gross income (AGI) are eligible.  A credit phase out kicks in for AGI above $110,000 for married joint-filing and $70,000 for individual taxpayers.

Ownership Interval Penalties:

Unlike the Federal tax credit which requires a three year period of ownership, there are no restrictions on the timeframe that a taxpayer must own a home under the DC program.

Dwelling Types:

Qualifying dwelling types include house, houseboat, housetrailer, cooperative apartment, condominium, or other type of residence.

Exclusions:

Homes purchased from related persons, by gift or inheritance are not eligible.  Related persons include but are not limited to grandparents, spouses, children and grandchildren.  The credit can only be claimed once, so if you have previously taken the credit on another DC property, you cannot claim it a second time.  Homes that are not your main home where you live the majority of the time are also not eligible. Homebuyers filing for the Federal First Time Buyers Tax Credit are also not eligible for the DC tax credit.

Filing Requirements:

Filers claiming the credit must use IRS form 1040 or 1040NR and and attach IRS Form 8859 District of Columbia First-Time Homebuyer Credit.

Quote from: fieldafm on May 06, 2011, 11:57:02 AM

Quotethis ain't DC, everything is highly condensed there

Most everyone lives in Virginia and Maryland and commutes in. 

Census: Young adults are responsible for most of D.C.’s growth in past decade

By Carol Morello, Dan Keating and Steve Hendrix, Thursday, May , 12:02 AM

People in their 20s and early 30s now make up almost a third of the District’s population, new census figures show, and were responsible for almost all of the city’s growth in the past 10 years.

The surge of young people reflects the city’s growing allure to college graduates, who come to take advantage of the strong job market and help transform neighborhoods into lively centers of condominiums, clubs and coffee shops.

The District also experienced an increase in adults in their late 50s and early 60s during the past decade. At the same time, the number of children younger than 15 dropped by a fifth.

But the biggest change was the spike in the number of young adults.

About 190,000 of the city’s 600,000 residents are between the ages of 20 and 34, a 23 percent jump. The 35,000 additional people in that age group fueled the city’s entire population gain between 2000 and 2010.

They did not settle evenly around the city. The increase was steepest in the wards that encompass Capitol Hill, the Northeast, downtown, Shaw and Logan Circle. The growth among young adults was negligible in the city’s poorest neighborhoods and in its most expensive. The census figures could not be broken down by race.

Demographers and urban experts said the census numbers confirm what is readily evident in Washington’s crowded sidewalk cafes and bike lanes.

“This reflects the resurgence of the city over the decade,” said Alice M. Rivlin, who was chairwoman of the D.C. Financial Control Board. “It’s clearly become a more lively place, with more restaurants, more theaters, more things young people and empty nesters like to do in cities.”

People such as Yuuke Shinomiya.

When he came to the District six years ago from Ohio to take an internship on the Hill, most of the people he arrived with were gone after two years. He intended to follow but stayed for a job with a medical association and became entranced by the city.

“I was just going to be here for six months,” said Shinomiya, 28, who works as a lobbyist for an insurance company. He lives in a Glover Park apartment, practices yoga and bar-hops not just in Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle, but lately also around H Street, Penn Quarter and Logan Circle. “It’s just steadily gotten a lot more hip. A lot of my friends who left for grad school have come back.”

‘Spots cropping up’

That humming singles vibe has caught the attention of David Helfrich, 29, who is just finishing law school at Howard University. Originally from New Hampshire, Helfrich said he hadn’t planned on settling here but is looking for a local job in intellectual property law.

“I’d like to stay. I kind of fell in love with the city,” Helfrich said Wednesday while shopping at the Whole Foods market on P Street in Northwest. His top D.C. draws: the international tone of the city, the robust legal scene and the clubs. Helfrich is a frequent partier at Josephine and Recess in Northwest and Smith Commons on H Street.

“There are spots cropping up all over to cater to people like me,” he said. “It’s gotten to be the perfect mix of professional life and night life. That’s hard to find anywhere.”

One of the ‘cool cities’

Their impressions underscore the District’s newfound cachet. A city once renowned as a mecca for workaholics is starting to be thought of as a place that’s fun.

William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, said the District is following the same pattern seen in Boston and other places considered to be “cool cities.”

“Young professionals [are] inhabiting the city while boomers have left to go to the suburbs,” he said.

Ed Lazere of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute said the growth in jobs requiring a college education and the city’s investment in Metro and other services are a draw.

“People are moving to the Washington area, and then deciding they’d love to live in the District because it’s an exciting place to live,” he said.

The ranks of people 55 to 64 are rising, too. They went up from 56,000 a decade ago to 64,000 today and account for 11 percent of the city’s population.

But it is largely young adults who have been targeted by many developments the District has pursued.

“In the wards that have seen the most population growth, part of that growth has been from younger professionals moving into the city and into all the new housing created in those areas, probably specifically for them,” said Peter Tatian, a researcher at the Urban Institute’s Center on Metropolitan Housing and Communities. “A lot of singles and childless couples make up that population.”

It remains to be seen whether they will stay as they age, marry and have children. The census shows that the number of children younger than 5 remained stable over the decade, but the number of children ages 5 to 14 fell 20 percent, from 65,000 to 51,000.

Some urban planners consider households without children a financial plus because families with school-age children cost cities more in services than they pay in taxes. Others say cities with few children are poorer for it.

“People with children are good for cities,” Frey said. “They invigorate neighborhoods. They’re more involved in community activities, making sure the libraries work well and the parks are working well. Families with children add a sense of social interaction to a community.

“One drawback of the District’s growth is that it’s been in people who are younger and older, but not in the middle.”

That’s the pattern that Orlando Fuentes sees in his work managing condominium buildings. His typical resident is an unmarried young professional who stays a few years. Once married, they don’t stay long.

“It still feels basically like a singles city,” said Fuentes, 37, who was riding a neon blue Schwinn on the new bike lane along 15th Street NW. He moved from Hyattsville in 1994 because of the District’s reputation as a gay-friendly city and stays, in part, he said, because it has become such a bike-friendly one.

Shinomiya, the insurance lobbyist, said he envisions staying in the city even as a parent.

“At this point, all of my friends are here and all of my professional network,” he said. “Practically speaking, I think I will be in Washington for a long time.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/census-young-adults-are-responsible-for-most-of-dcs-growth-in-past-decade/2011/05/04/AFJz5LtF_story.html

Quote from: finehoe on May 06, 2011, 12:01:03 PM
William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, said the District is following the same pattern seen in Boston and other places considered to be “cool cities.”

Jacksonville's considered a cool city too, right? Right?....{crickets}

DC has always been a 'cool city' with all of the universities and bars in the area.  Hell, go back and watch the movie St Elmos Fire.  The area has been crawling with young people for quite awhile(centuries).  The difference now is in how they are embracing a regulatory envrionment which encourages urban development within their core.  Even as short as a few years ago, the main developers in the area were fixated on exurb addition.

And their transit system is the very best.

Quote from: JeffreyS on May 06, 2011, 12:12:15 PM
And their transit system is the very best.

http://www.capitalbikeshare.com/

Quote from: JeffreyS on May 06, 2011, 12:12:15 PM
And their transit system is the very best.

Well, apparently they can afford the very best.  From Bloomberg:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-19/beltway-earnings-make-u-s-capital-richer-than-silicon-valley.html (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-19/beltway-earnings-make-u-s-capital-richer-than-silicon-valley.html)

QuoteTop Income in U.S. Is...Gasp!...Wash. D.C. Area
Q
By Frank Bass and Timothy R. Homan - Oct 19, 2011 12:00 AM ET


The typical household in the Washington metro area earned $84,523 last year, down from the $85,168 earned in 2009. Household income also dropped last year in San Jose, to $83,944 from $85,168 the previous year.

Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, government data show.

The U.S. capital has swapped top spots with Silicon Valley, according to recent Census Bureau figures, with the typical household in the Washington metro area earning $84,523 last year. The national median income for 2010 was $50,046.

The figures demonstrate how the nation’s political and financial classes are prospering as the economy struggles with unemployment above 9 percent and thousands of Americans protest in the streets against income disparity, said Kevin Zeese, director of Prosperity Agenda, a Baltimore-based advocacy group trying to narrow the divide between rich and poor.

“There’s a gap that’s isolating Washington from the reality of the rest of the country,” Zeese said. “They just get more and more out of touch.”

Total compensation for federal workers, including health care and other benefits, last year averaged $126,369, compared with $122,697 in 2009, according to Bloomberg News calculations of Commerce Department data. There were 170,467 federal employees in the District of Columbia as of June. The Washington area includes the District of Columbia, parts of Northern Virginia, eastern Maryland and eastern West Virginia.

Embracing K Street

In recent years Washington has attracted more lobbyists and firms with an interest in the health-care overhaul and financial regulations signed into law by President Barack Obama, according to local business leaders.

“Wall Street has moved to K Street,” said Barbara Lang, president and chief executive officer of the DC Chamber of Commerce, referring to the Washington street that’s home to prominent lobbying firms. “Those two industries clearly have grown in our city.”

Still, household income fell even in Washington by 0.8 percent last year from $85,168. In the San Jose area, home to Cupertino-based Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) in San Jose, income dropped to $83,944 from $84,483 in 2009.

Median income in both metro areas has been falling since 2008, when it reached a record in each place. The 4.7 percent drop in Silicon Valley during that period was three times larger than the Washington region’s 1.5 percent fall.

‘Shallower Recession’

The flow of federal dollars in and around the nation’s capital helped the region weather the economic slump better than most areas and is contributing to its recovery. The unemployment rate in the Washington metro area in August was 6.1 percent, compared with 10 percent in San Jose, according to Labor Department figures. Nationally, joblessness was 9.1 percent in September for a third straight month.

“The region did experience a shorter, shallower recession than San Jose,” said Sara Kline, a Washington analyst at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “The federal government stepped in to take efforts to dampen the recession. It was focused to some extent in the D.C. area as well, given the presence of federal workers there and contractors. That insulated it from more of a downturn.”

Federal government spending for programs excluding Social Security and Medicare in fiscal year 2011, which ended on Sept. 30, rose to $2.38 trillion from $2.3 trillion the previous year.

Lawyer Capitol

Last year Washington also had the most lawyers per capita in the U.S. compared with the 50 states, with one for every 12 city residents, according to figures from the American Bar Association and the Census Bureau. In New York State the figure was one out of every 123 residents, while in California the ratio was one in 243.

Associate attorneys in the Washington area who have worked between one and eight years had a median salary of $186,250, compared with the national median for their peers of $123,521, according to a survey by the Washington-based National Association for Law Placement.

Lobbyists play a prominent role in the Washington economy. In 2010 there were 12,964 registered lobbyists, with most working in or around the nation’s capital, according to figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington- based research group that tracks political spending. Spending on lobbying efforts reached a record $3.51 billion last year, up from $3.49 billion in 2009.

Contractor Central

The Washington suburbs are also home to government contractors such as Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), the world’s largest defense company, and General Dynamics Corp. (GD), the Falls Church, Virginia-based maker of Abrams tanks and Gulfstream business jets.

With about 5.6 million residents, the Washington region has an aggregate household income of about $221.4 billion. The San Jose area has about 1.8 million people and income of $67 billion, according to census figures gathered from the American Community Survey. The annual survey polls about 3 million American households to provide annual economic, demographic, social and housing characteristics for the nation.

The Brownsville-Harlingen metro area in southeast Texas along the border with Mexico had the lowest median household income last year at $31,736.

Such income inequality is on display in Washington as well. In the District of Columbia, almost 11 percent of the city’s population qualifies as “very poor,” meaning they make less than half the poverty rate, or about $11,025 a year for a family of four and $5,415 for a single person. The same figure for San Jose is about 6 percent, according to census figures.

“Even though we’ve got this very healthy group of government employees and contractors, there’s still a lot of people left behind,” said Douglas Besharov, a professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy.

To contact the reporters on this story: Frank Bass in Washington at fbass1@bloomberg.net; Timothy R. Homan in Washington at thoman1@bloomberg.net

Anyone think this is a good thing?

Quote from: urbanlibertarian on October 19, 2011, 03:27:48 PM
Anyone think this is a good thing?

What?  For an American city to have a strong middle-class?

Quote from: finehoe on October 22, 2011, 10:43:23 AM

Quote from: urbanlibertarian on October 19, 2011, 03:27:48 PM
Anyone think this is a good thing?

What?  For an American city to have a strong middle-class?

It appears to be a strong upper middle class whose livelihood is dependent upon the public sector share of GDP and the subsidies and favorable regulations they can get for certain parts of the private sector.

There really is no "middle class" in DC. Its upper-middle class & rich, to dirt poor. I imagine the dirt poor won't be there for long though, as they're being priced out through the gentrification process.

Quote from: peestandingup on October 22, 2011, 11:21:18 AM
There really is no "middle class" in DC. Its upper-middle class & rich, to dirt poor.

urbanlibertarian's article was about the Washington area, not DC proper.  And there is most assuredly a middle class in the Virginia and Maryland suburbs of DC.

The reason the area has high salaries is that it is highly educated.  The three most educated places with 200,000 people or more in Washingtonâ€"Arlingtonâ€"Alexandria by bachelor's degree attainment (population 25 and over) are Arlington, Virginia (68.0%), Fairfax County, Virginia (58.8%), and Montgomery County, Maryland (56.4%). Forbes magazine stated in its 2008 "America's Best- And Worst-Educated Cities" report: "The D.C. area is less than half the size of L.A., but both cities have around 100,000 Ph.D.'s."

True, but most people these days don't just get PHDs all willy nilly either. Meaning, education costs big bucks, so if they're living any kind of decent life there then they're very likely educated AND loaded. Or at least their family is.

There's exceptions of course. You may be able to rack up student loans, find a decent enough job & somehow manage to live in the district without a wealthy backend helping you out, but you'll either be living in the hood (which is becoming less & less there), or live in a decent hood (with roommates) but be eating cat food for breakfast.

Trust me, we were there & we're def middle class all the way. It was unsustainable. Wife has her PHD by the way. ;)

Quote from: thelakelander on May 06, 2011, 08:54:29 AM
That's a cheaper alternative than building another 9B, Outer Beltway or widening a Blanding Boulevard.

Widening Blanding Boulevard "Impossible" unless of course one was to look to Clay County ( the Rightful Owner of Blanding BLVD as Identified Issue) for the next needed projected call to growth. Hey,We Can Do It; Pave Your Way;bulldoze the homes of the residents that bought in to the Move To Clay mantra.You are so easily expendable,even easier than Middleburg Country Folk/Beltway.. The Chamber narrative.Like those before you,minor in the Clay Scheme Of Things.

Regarding the NE,as a Jacksonville based 'high ticket 'sales person drawing in part on Northeastern customers I attest to the strength of the Northeast......DC.