Oligarchville: How Washington’s New Rich Live

[KoKo]

Oligarchville: How Washington’s New Rich Live

The twin explosions of post-9/11 national security extravagance and Citizens United political spending bonanza have reshaped Washington — not only in its political outlook but physically, with this New Class preferring lavish McMansions to show off their newfound wealth

by
Mike Lofgren

In 1927, H.L. Mencken rode by train through the Pennsylvania coal country. The houses he saw along the way were so hideous, at least in his eyes, that he was moved to pen his famous essay, “The Libido for the Ugly.” Mencken was writing about towns inhabited by coal miners and railroad brakemen, but what would he say if he were to visit present-day Washington, DC and take a stroll in its surrounding suburbs?

I’d bet the Sage of Baltimore would direct his limitless venom at the spanking-new particle-board McMansions of Washington’s New Class: the K Street lawyers, political consultants, Beltway fixers and war on terrorism profiteers who run a permanent shadow government in the nation’s capital.

This group does not include federal employees or most elected officials. With their statutorily limited salaries, they cannot afford the bloated monstrosities favored by the New Class. Modest developments like Fairlington or the humble cape cods, ramblers and four-squares of Arlington were built for them in the early post-World War II heyday of the federal bureaucrat.

There is talk of a Georgetown elite, but ever since Pamela Harriman’s death in 1997, that crowd has been as defunct as the Romanov dynasty. Georgetown has elegant but cramped townhouses with creaky floorboards, inadequate wiring and an aura of ever-so-slightly shabby gentility. Who needs that when you can buy a brand-new 12,000 square foot McMansion with cast stone lions guarding the front gate, a two-and-a-half story tall great room and a home cinema with built-in FSB ports?

If that sounds more like the jumped-up suburb of a Sunbelt city like Houston or Atlanta than the traditional, old-money atmosphere of Beacon Hill or the Philadelphia Mainline, it is because that is precisely what the neighborhoods of the new establishment have become.
Continued at..........

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/02/09/oligarchville-how-washingtons-new-rich-live

[elljay]

1. What Scares Me

is that the McMansion illustrated in the article costs less than the current value of my 38 year old suburban Bay Area house. Maybe my old stained carpets are now antique collectibles? I had once hoped to sell the house to fund my retirement. Now, I feel like I should give it to my daughter when she grows up because she may never have the ability to buy her own home with even a professional's income. Where does this madness end?

[spooky3]

2. SF is more expensive apples-to-apples than DC but that

Pictured McMansion is nowhere close to DC. If it were in McLean or somewhere that is truly a "suburb" as you are probably defining it, it would be at least double the cost due to land value.

[swilton]

3. Lived in the Washington DC suburbs until 2010

and saw this ALL the time. Case study. My former neighborhood was in Maryland and was right on the beltway. The houses were built in the 1940's - salt box was the style they were called. Not really large but all brick and neighbors lovingly cared for their yards and fixed them up in innovative ways. Then along came the McMansions. People sought the ideal location and this was it, even if the houses were small....Every now and then one would see space of one of the old houses being raized and one of the monstrosities going up....Of course there were the old trees that gave the neighborhood such character - RIP...

And then there was Loudon County - beautiful horse country - rolling dirt roads that were ideal for bike-riding.....beautiful old farms. Now there are 'developments'.....cheaply made houses having no character whatsoever. Even the exterior building materials are faux......

I moved to New England where I'm part of the real as opposed to phony world.

[MBS]

4. What's happened to the once-gorgeous countryside of Loudoun County

is particularly heartbreaking.

Like your old Maryland neighborhood, more and more of the tidy post-war brick houses in Arlington County are being torn down and replaced with McMansions - ugly architecture and way, way, too large for the lot. And the politics of Arlington seem to me to be moving in unpleasant rightward directions as the wealth (and tastelessness) increases.

Sickening to watch.