I’m always curious about the notion that “the Provinces” can’t support either the experiments or the tabs of the more adventurous destinations we drive into the city for. We’re willing to drive to the Inn at Little Washington, an extreme example for sure but in the reverse, we drive into the city to eat. And demographically Alexandria can hold its own against the income levels of most of the metropolitan area. Surely we don’t think that people in McLean and Potomac and Old Town can’t afford the cost of a dinner at the Minibar. But we don’t perceive Alexandria as a restaurant destination the way the Penn Quarter is viewed. It isn’t. Obviously it has as much to do with buzz and the hip quotient as it does with income levels. But it also has to do with local government making small businesses a priority over chains. Business diversity just isn’t valued over the mall culture mono-crop and its sales tax revenues. The parking issue in Old Town has been going on for as long as I’ve been around here (20 years). The Clydes owners purchase the old George Washington Club property on Washington Street almost 20 years ago and the city parking requirement were one of the factors in preventing them from using the site (still vacant and for sale). The City Council has been willing to make retail and commercial concessions to allow The Gap and the Federal government to put cars on the streets but they have been unwilling to support small businesses like restaurants that are perceived to bring late night parking problems. Alexandria is the 15th most dense city in the country and its density has increased dramatically in the past 10 years. I think Alexandria has more in common with Georgetown. Both have extremely strong residential housing values with vocal ownership, tourists (if you want to call urban street shopping malls that), and parking problems. Most homes in Alexandria and Georgetown do not have private parking spaces. Alexandria treasures its pedestrian past and values the proximity residents have to services. It is why so many people (myself included) want to live or work here. Sure the housing stock is expensive and totally mature, but in its pedestrian nature Alexandria has more in common with center cities than the suburbs. Walking is a necessity of living here. And then we have to get in a car to drive to Washington for anything worth dinner.