Quote:
Originally Posted by BTinSF
^^^I grew up in Silver Spring, MD in the 50's and early 60's. Talk about looking like hell. I hardly recognize the place and it sure isn't anywhere I'd want to live. I think a lot of Washington's inner suburbs--THE suburbs of the 60's--are considerably the worse for wear as commuting to Hagerstown and even West Virginia became possible (and people now do it).
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Silver Spring is strange in that it is booming by the Metro stop but looks really bedraggled (borderline slumlike) in some of the adjacent neighborhoods to the east. It's still very nice heading west from Silver Spring towards Bethesda.
I have a friend who lives on the fringes of downtown near the Safeway, and the nearby residental blocks look terrible. Many of the houses are rentals and are stuffed with newcomers to this country. There's also some semi-ghettoish areas heading towards Takoma Park.
At the same time Silver Spring center is booming and quite expensive, though rather unattractive.
I think DC has the Sunbelt issue of extremely fast growth leading to yesterday's suburbs becoming today's slums. It happens everywhere in America but it occurs very quickly in the Sunbelt. In Phoenix, some of the West Side neighborhoods under construction right now are almost certain to be slumlike in 15 years or so.