The Race For Residents: D.C. And Baltimore Go Head To Head

After Baltimore starting advertising its comparatively inexpensive brownstones on the D.C. Metro, Washington struck back with its own marketing campaign designed to keep young professionals in the city. Why the "race for residents" will likely continue. "All of the sudden a market exists for downtown middle-class living-much as all of the sudden in the 1970s a market existed for urban theme park tourism. Both cities have chosen, quite rationally, to ride this wave. But when the dust clears, the city that wins the competition will be the one that uses this momentary opportunity to raise the tax dollars that leverage redevelopment of the broad middle-class neighborhoods further from downtown."