News and notes from Reston (tm).

Monday, December 20, 2010

Reston: All About the Benjamins

income map.jpg

This fancy map confirms what we've known all along: North Reston is the most affluent part of our beloved beige community. Thank you, U.S. Census, for that valuable news flash! But where do the undesiriables poors live? If you read the comments on this fancy "web log," you'd say "South Reston, of course." But you'd be wrong, as the Census Bureau has pinpointed the area immediately around Lake Anne as Reston's poorest neighborhood. Which is why, when you walk through Lake Anne Plaza, you see so many people wearing those barrels held up by suspenders that were so popular during the last economic downturn. The median household income around Lake Anne is $73,259, which is down 23 percent since 2000, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, which recorded demographic changes from 2005-09. North Reston residents reported median household incomes of between $124,000 and $134,000, according to the Census, while South Reston ranged between $83,000 and $89,000 average household incomes. (Yes, we know Lake Anne is home to several housing developments that serve low-income residents, but so are most parts of Reston -- that's part of the whole vision of our beige community. There are just comparatively fewer other houses in Lake Anne to nudge the averages up. Either that, or Dear Leader had a bad decade on the stock market.)

But we digress. The Census survey also claimed that Reston actually grew smaller between 2000 and 2009, from 56,407 to 53,759 people, though our BFFs at Reston 2020 (and common sense) dispute this, given that nearly 2,400 new housing units were built in Reston during the same time period. The median home value rose to $463,900 in 2009 from $238,700 in 2000, while median household income increased from $80,018 to $98,207 and the median age rose from 36.2 to 38.5. Our diverse community maintained roughly the same demographics (73 percent white, 9 percent black, 10 percent Asian and 9 percent Hispanic), while 26 percent speak a language other than English at home.

In conclusion, in this time of holiday need, please remember your less fortunate neighbors in their lakefront homes on Lake Anne, and be sure to slide the leftovers from your fruitcakes and whatnot under the doors of their three-car garages, the end.

13 comments:

  1. Peasant From Less Sought After South RestonDecember 20, 2010 at 10:24 AM

    Uh-oh. Does this mean we should now refer to it as "Least Sought After Lake Anne"?

    (ducks to avoid a massive incoming volley of Macaroni Grill all-you-can-eat breadsticks launched his way by the Knuckle Duster).

    ReplyDelete
  2. and they wonder why nothing can survive at lake Anne Plaza.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was born is the poor part of Reston,
    In a cluster called Hickory; the best'un!
    We were poor but we had love,
    That's the one thing Dear Leader made sure of,
    He developed land to make a rich man's dollar.

    ReplyDelete
  4. From the Uplands of RestonDecember 20, 2010 at 1:18 PM

    PFLSAS'
    Heads up, lasagna from Kalypsos Sports Tavern incoming.

    I guess the North Reston Giant is where the refugees from Lake Anne go to dumpster dive for food.

    PFLSAS -- say that three times in a row with two Macaroni Grill breadsticks poking out your nose.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My street is in the $$$ part of town, but I'm still poor! Who do I call to get my fair share?

    ReplyDelete
  6. In that section so cleverly decorated by the $ -- where exactly are the subsidized housing developments located?

    Oh yeah, right. Next to the on again/off again tennis court/ juice bar/ roller derby zone...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Clicked on the map in first line above & looked at South Reston. Map has colored dots for various races & ethnic groups--one for each 25 people. Appears there are a whole lot of people living in the natural areas and few "boat people" living on the lakes.

    I knew the economy in SoRes was bad, but I didn't know that many people had lost their homes!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Largest high-rises on Lake Anne are full of the elderly who are hurting badly under the current government policies on interest rates.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This census data has confirmed what I always thought: the whitest area of Reston is the olive bar at Harris-Teeter.

    ReplyDelete
  10. When are we oppressed Lake Anne residents going to get some social justice? It's time for 20194 to spread some of that wealth around.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 20194 can start showing their good will by paying the 2011 assessments for Lake Anne residents, and go further by implementing a zip code specific cap-&-trade scheme involving transfer payments to Lake Anne to incentivize our development, while reducing their own carbon footprints.

    Ya'll can also send us your extra toilet paper now that you will be using just one square. We will be ever so grateful.

    ReplyDelete
  12. "the current government policies on interest rates."

    Federal Reserve is not "government", at least formally, it's a private corporation.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Everybody knows that the poorest section of town is the portion of Glade west of Reston Pkwy.


    HAHAHAHA @ the map, the self-written labeling is hilarious.

    ReplyDelete

(If you don't see comments for some reason, click here).