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.
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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.”
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