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Massive DOD Cutbacks to hurt Northern Virginia
Posted by: eesh ()
Date: August 15, 2010 06:25PM

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2010/08/09/daily19.html


"This is equivalent to a recession if it happens all at once," Fuller told WTOP.

Fuller said it is more likely that the economy will "grow more slowly." And, the cut "will affect the office market, certainly," he said.

Because defense contracting is so specialized, if contracts aren't renewed or are cut by the Pentagon, those jobs disappear from the local economy.

"These jobs are gone. They just don't move over to the private sector," Fuller said.


Blessed are the murderous.

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Re: Massive DOD Cutbacks to hurt Northern Virginia
Posted by: yup ()
Date: August 15, 2010 06:47PM

eesh Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2010
> /08/09/daily19.html
>
>
> "This is equivalent to a recession if it happens
> all at once," Fuller told WTOP.
>
> Fuller said it is more likely that the economy
> will "grow more slowly." And, the cut "will affect
> the office market, certainly," he said.
>
> Because defense contracting is so specialized, if
> contracts aren't renewed or are cut by the
> Pentagon, those jobs disappear from the local
> economy.
>
> "These jobs are gone. They just don't move over to
> the private sector," Fuller said.

Yup - I've been saying for years that this county needs to diversify.

Compare Fairfax and Montgomery - where is our research university? Where is our biotech? Where is our IT research? Where is our science park?

We also missed a real opportunity to site a major secure defense or intelligence campus in the west of the county post 911, rather than random office buildings - now everything is being BRAC'd to Belvoir and Meade

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Re: Massive DOD Cutbacks to hurt Northern Virginia
Posted by: ThePackLeader ()
Date: August 15, 2010 07:12PM

Hello? We have Automotive companies located in Western Fairfax, IT, Telecommunications, Medical, Aerospace, Media organizations, you name it. We are plenty diversified.

Also, we have multiple major Intel/Defense campuses out here. There's a CTC in Western Ffx., as well as the NRO, and NSA establishments (In a combined campus).

Oh yes, let's not forget the USGS Headquarters out here in Reston as well.

==================================================================================================
"And if any women or children get their legs torn off, or faces caved in, well, it's tough shit for them." -2LT. Bert Stiles, 505th, 339th (On Berlin Bombardier Mission, 1944).

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Re: Massive DOD Cutbacks to hurt Northern Virginia
Posted by: nahh ()
Date: August 15, 2010 07:37PM

Government departments always talk about cutting spending. Does it ever happen?

ESPECIALLY DoD. This may hold water if it was some other department, like agriculture or something.

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Re: Massive DOD Cutbacks to hurt Northern Virginia
Posted by: yup ()
Date: August 15, 2010 08:35PM

ThePackLeader Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello? We have Automotive companies located in
> Western Fairfax, IT, Telecommunications, Medical,
> Aerospace, Media organizations, you name it. We
> are plenty diversified.
>
> Also, we have multiple major Intel/Defense
> campuses out here. There's a CTC in Western Ffx.,
> as well as the NRO, and NSA establishments (In a
> combined campus).
>
> Oh yes, let's not forget the USGS Headquarters out
> here in Reston as well.


Most of the sectors you mention are only represented by sales or federal organisations - they don't build anything or generate high value spin-out jobs.

Telecoms never recovered from the crash, aerospace is sales and some dulles service jobs, medical is mostly the service side - no pharma or devices to speak of, certainly nothing serious in biotech (janelia farms is in loudon) etc

CTC seems pretty self contained, my understanding was that NRO and NGIA were relocating

USGS doesn't seem to have generated a major local ecology

Of you compare them with the skills and spin-off implications of somewhere like Meade, they come in a poor second.

Given the local demand and tax revenue, we're underserved when it comes to top-tier state and private research universities - Mason is getting better but its still not there

All seems very brittle to me - and the federal balance definitively seems to be shifting to the south-east of the county and to maryland with BRAC

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Re: Massive DOD Cutbacks to hurt Northern Virginia
Posted by: Fitz ()
Date: August 15, 2010 08:40PM

We have lawyers. Lots of lawyers. But still not enough. When some of them are forced to lower their hourly rates, then we will have enough.

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Re: Massive DOD Cutbacks to hurt Northern Virginia
Posted by: yahh ()
Date: August 15, 2010 09:30PM

nahh wrote:

"Government departments always talk about cutting spending. Does it ever happen?

ESPECIALLY DoD. This may hold water if it was some other department, like agriculture or something."


We never had a recession quite like this before (since the Great Depression)---so I wouldn't look to recent history as a crystal ball on spending cuts. Government spending (ahem, government borrowing I mean) is getting a wee bit less popular these days if you haven't noticed. The other "departments" are not nearly big enough to solve this spending problem all by themselves. Social Security and Medicare are the other two "biggees"---outside of DoD. The "new normal" is coming.

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Re: Massive DOD Cutbacks to hurt Northern Virginia
Posted by: yahh ()
Date: August 15, 2010 09:35PM

Also---the middle of the country is not too sympathetic. They have much worse unemployment and no government "goodies" anything near the scale of the ones here.

The middle of America has been decimated by the loss of manufacturing while places like this have been using their tax dollars. They ain't sending more right now and they honestly cannot.

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Re: Massive DOD Cutbacks to hurt Northern Virginia
Posted by: tomahawk ()
Date: August 15, 2010 09:48PM

Yeah, but they're just "rednecks" living in "fly-over country" so we aren't supposed to care about them. Especially us NOVA yuppies.

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Re: Massive DOD Cutbacks to hurt Northern Virginia
Posted by: attack ()
Date: August 15, 2010 10:00PM

Does that mean they can't count on the DoD to defend them in case Canada attacks?

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Re: Massive DOD Cutbacks to hurt Northern Virginia
Posted by: hoocoodanode ()
Date: August 16, 2010 08:28PM

They have guns and ammo. They can defend themselves.

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