by Kevin Palmer?
It happened again. I was surfing along, bouncing from one thing to another, when I came across this interactive media and design firm whose work seemed intriguing. Noting that it had gotten its start in San Francisco, but included a listing of locations in New York and Washington, DC, I thought, "Great!" So, I clicked on the Washington link, and up came the corporate address somewhere in Bethesda, Maryland.
By that small act of deception, so many organizations and firms enjoy the cachet of a Washington location, without the messy inconvenience of actually being in Washington. I had a mind to send a message to the corporate offices in San Fran and give them a piece of my mind, but thought the better of it. They're just exercising their right to less expensive office rents, lower taxes, easier commutes, and the usual list of excuses for why a company plops down in the suburbs, rather than investing in the center city.
If companies do it, so do regular folk. If you ask someone from Rockville (in suburban Maryland) where they're from when you meet them in a foreign land, they'll likely tell you "Washington." Why? Because no one has ever heard of Rockville. Same is true for nearly all of the suburban jurisdictions that surround any big city. But in "Washington" the deceit is all the more profane, because Washington does not share even the surname with its fellow jurisdictions, such as Boston and New York. At least folks in Boston have "Massachusetts" in common with their Brookline neighbors. When a certain trendy New England sports outfitter opened its first outlet outside of Maine in Tysons Corner, Virginia, bus placards and radio spots proudly announced that "LL Bean is now in Washington." Bullshit, I say.
I'm tired of people borrowing my hometown's name for their own purposes and not giving me anything for it. I pay some of the highest taxes in the country to enjoy the privilege of living where I work. For this privilege, I also endure constant whining by out-of-town politicians who believe they know what's best for my city (Congressional oversight is just one of the many features built into the founding documents that created our capital city). I don't have representation in Congress, but I can be thrown in jail if I avoid Federal taxes or refuse to enroll in the Selective Service.
Washington is a town where over forty per cent of the land Is owned by the Federal government (and is thus not taxed). A commuter tax has been proposed for years but is routinely shot down by the regional heavies that have oversight on the District's affairs. And its retail economy took a nosedive from the late 70's to the mid-90's, thanks mainly to suburbanization (another discussion entirely) and white flight. So, we're a bit sensitive to people borrowing our name to get the most bang for their buck. If you're going to invest in Fairfax, don't tell me you're in Washington. Build a store in Landover, but say you're in Landover. And don't pretend you've got an office in Washington unless its area code is 202.
Recently, some retailers have shown signs of making a return to the city. A Barnes and Noble and a Borders have both opened in the "old downtown" (between 14th Street and 3rd St., NW). And a fair bit of office speculation has begun anew thanks to the considerably controversial (and unfinished) convention center and the MCI Center, both on 7th Street.
But many retailers still don't seem to get it. There's nearly 600,000 earnest citizens living in the nation's capital. We spend money, we renovate houses, we send our children to school, we eat. Yet some of the basic necessities are still hard to come by, or impossible to find. Residents living east of the Anacostia River, in much-maligned Ward 8, got news last year that two grocery stores were considering opening in their neighborhoods. Are we supposed to rejoice at this news?
In the suburbs, I could stop at one of 10 grocery stores, often at multiple outlets of the same chain, in a 5-mile drive. But try that in Northeast DC, where I live. There's a Murry's about 3 blocks from my house, a Safeway about a mile and a half, and various corner stores. No Trader Joe's. No Fresh Fields. No Giant, a supermarket that has its roots in Washington, but has all but abandoned it, save for its older NW locations. And it's not for lack of efforts on the part of residents, many newly-arrived from the frustrations of living in the suburbs.
We've sent appeals to all of the big chains to invest in the District. Open a store here and we'll support you, we tell them. Usually, we get a polite, but terse response from someone in Marketing or "Development" that goes something like this: "{Name of retailer} is not currently looking at expanding in Washington. Thank you for your inquiry." Mayor Williams, whom many middle-class folks thought was the savior of the city, has tried to push economic development, coupled with a decentralization of the municipal services to neighborhood centers, but the process is still too slow for most people's patience.
Still, new announcements and prognostications seem to occur almost daily, prompting new speculation and driving up real estate even further. The challenge will be to fight for the things that help to keep Washington a residential city without driving up the cost of actually residing here. When Fresh Fields (Whole Foods' local brand) announced it would build a new store near 14th Street, NW, nearly two years ago, the price of property in the surrounding neighborhood went up at an alarming rate. Since opening in December, the store has helped to spur other projects around it, including three new townhouse and condominium projects, a CVS, a new café, and a home furnishings store. More retailers are sure to follow. And Giant and Kmart have both made announcements that they intend to build stores in Northeast, but have yet to make any concrete progress. Home Depot began plans to resurrect one of the two sites of the region's homegrown and now-defunct Hechinger's home improvement stores, but pulled out of the deal when the city evoked the historic preservation requirements. It seems retailers are willing to use the Washington name when it benefits them, but are unwilling to compromise when actually building in Washington. They'd rather plop the same suburban recipe down in the middle of a city. I wonder how New York or Chicago are handling this.
Kevin Palmer is a graphic designer in Washington, DC, with a keen interest in seeing his neighborhood and city get some respect.
