Interesting Washington Post video story

On Mayor Fenty (DC) and DC and development. The video features a topping out ceremony at the rebuilding of the old Southwest DC Waterfront Mall as well as a protest about the property development policies of the administration.

The video story feels incomplete to me, but is still worth watching.


It's an interesting conundrum that any mayoral administration faces. The bulk of a city's revenue (and most cities rely on property taxes, DC is unusual in that it fully controls its income tax revenue stream) comes from property taxes. And property taxes for office buildings (and industrial sites and shopping malls--at least in the old days) generate far more revenue than residential properties.

Plus, commercial properties typically take less money to service than residential properties, especially residential properties with children. The typical figures bandied about is that for every $1 of commercial property tax, a city has a profit of 45 cents, while a typical single family residential property costs $1.20 for every $1 of residential property tax revenue that is received. (Multiunit residential properties cost about 85 cents to service for each $1 of property tax revenue.)

So it is a constant dance to generate enough property revenue, to keep the commercial interests happy, while ameliorating residential interests, and improving neighborhoods, when improving neighborhoods costs more money than is generated by increased property and income tax revenues.