Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Not Much to Recommend It

Quotes from two articles in today's W. Post. See Post for full articles (http://www.washingtonpost.com/).

From "In D.C. Area, Even Subsistence Proves Pricey: Income Needed to Cover Basics Has Skyrocketed" in Metro Section:

"A single parent with an infant and one preschooler needs to earn $67,849 to meet basic costs in Fairfax County, the region's most expensive suburb, the study found. Those earnings are 50 percent more than the same family would have needed in 1999, the first year the study was conducted.

The income needed to live on a "bare-bones budget" in the Washington region has increased dramatically over the past six years because of the rising costs of housing, health care and child care, according to a new study.'

At the other end of the spectrum, the District and Prince George's County are the region's least expensive locales, though the income required to subsist in those places has risen over the past six years by at least 26 percent for a single parent with two children, according to the study. A two-parent household, with an infant and a preschool-age child, needs to earn $60,339 to live in the District, 27 percent more than necessary in 1999, the study found."

From "Teen Drivers Taught To Be Cool in the 'Hot Zone'" in Metro Section:

"A recent study by Allstate Insurance Co. found that the District is the most dangerous place to drive in the country. The study found that, on average, a driver in Washington crashes every 5.2 years, while a driver in, say, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, only crashes once every 15 years.
AAA has noted that the Washington area is "gridlocked with the third-worst congestion in the nation" and that the situation is made worse by "the deterioration in driver attitudes, with a regional epidemic of aggressive, reckless driving."

And no one said anything about the price of gas - or the fact that we might be terrorism central.

But, on the other hand, the Smithsonian, the cultural diversity, the restaurants, the intellectual atmosphere, the excitement of being in the middle of things - our local news is national....

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