DC population numbers down
According to the Washington Post's article "DC Down, VA, MD up" the District lost about 4,000 people , less than 1% of the District's total population. I'm going to blame gentrification as part of the reasoning.Looking at my block alone, houses that once held multigenerational families now hold singles and childless couples. There are a few people having kids or families that have remained, but not that many. Before I moved in there was a woman and her son living in my house. Some houses where stuffed to the gills with family, friends, boarders and what have you before new watchful neighbors helped crackdown on the overcrowding.
Mr. Bowtie, our lovely Mayor Tony Williams wanted 100,000 new residents over a period of 10 years. If Tony is the cool calculating accountant I think he is, he doesn't want families anyway. Families might be a bit more stable than we feelwheeling singles who can get up and move in a blink, but those families want schools and other services, services that cost money. No I think Tony wants a tax base that will generate money for taxing out the wazzoo and ask for very little (like snow plowed streets and garbage picked up) in return. So maybe in the back of his little mind he might be happy families are leaving the city, chased out by poor schools and higher costs of living.
posted by Mari @ 23.12.04
5 Comments:
I tend to think that a lot of families with kids eventually leave the district because of the dismal state of DC public schools, and the costs of the private schools.
Bingo on the schools. Once Clem turns school age there's a damn good chance we may bolt as well. The taxes in DC are nasty enough, the prospect of actually paying more for private schools makes staying in DC very unattractive. I keep my fingers crossed that the schools will get better, but knowing DC the odds of it happening are slim to none.
Nathan say it with me.... charter schools. Though I will perfectly understand if you hightale it out of Dodge City because of schools. DC hates families.
Charter schools are good! That's what we're hoping for. Also, to DC's sliver of credit I think the elementry schools aren't as bad as the middle and high schools. But charters will be what we're aiming for.
DC provides a great deal more chioce than any other local jurisdiction. In DC you are assigned a public school but you can request that you go to another school. The closer to your house/ward the better the chance but it is an option that is not possible in other areas.
And then you have charter schools which you mention with the clear choice there. Don't have kids yet myself but do think with dilligence the chance of a good education is high -- some DC high schools are as good as any in the area.
Re: census numbers -- don't forget they where well off in 2000 and with the city in a transition mode its gotta be easy to miss count a lot of people.
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