How we know that DC is totally, completely, and unequivocally screwed

Washington Post photo.

Because the Mayor says the most important priority for the city with regard to transit is moving the WMATA headquarters from downtown to Anacostia.

See "D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty says moving Metro top priority." from the Washington Business Journal.

Meanwhile, the city doesn't really have a comprehensive transportation plan.

Meanwhile, the city doesn't have a commitment to transportation demand management.

Meanwhile, the city hasn't committed to funding streetcar expansion.

Meanwhile, the city isn't addressing the need to build a separated blue line subway to add capacity and redundancy in the center city.

But yep, we want to move the WMATA headquarters, which is located in a place roughly convenient to 5 subway lines with a little bit of walking, to a place with access to one subway line. It is unlikely that the profit from selling the site will generate enough money to build a new headquarters. So what is the benefit? And who benefits? In short, is DC really that much better off with another downtown office building for law firms?

This is called dis-agglomeration -- if there were such a word.

agglomeration economies: economic geography suggests that firms (organizations) in the same industry may be drawn to the same locations because proximity generates positive externalities or 'agglomeration effects.'

In this case, firms are government agencies and it makes sense to place them close together. It also makes sense to locate such organizations in places where there are more transit connections, not fewer.

But in DC, for the most part, we have teflon politics. The future doesn't look good.