Everything in from East Falls Church on the orange line is walkable.  It was car dealerships and gas stations 25 years ago.  Silver spring on in on the red line is walkable.<p>My point about DC was more that the district itself has tons of ghetto that could easily be re-gentrified.  The middle class left the row-houses in the 60s in many cities, they turned to ghetto, but this is not necessarily a permanent state of affairs.<p>To repeat, this is basically what has happened in NYC.  The former ghetto inhabitants are now driving up the crime rate in northern Pennsylvania and other areas.