Montgomery, and any suburban county, may not have heavy urban infrastructure, but it is ludicrous to say we don’t have room for transit, bike routes, or multifamily mixed use development.

In the past we’ve had the option to stick to our strictly suburban profile, but we risk becoming mediocre (a terrible fate for a county full of A students!) if we don’t respond exuberantly to change.

Mature cities have the issue of how do they keep themselves attractive and relevant. The same conditions, age and density, are attributes that affect this issue negatively and positively. SOme cities have figured out how to leverage those characteristics to their benefit.

The middle suburbs are now mature enough to conjure up all of the negative connotations of age and density without the ability to leverage those same characteristics. These are regions in flux and the movement to cities you describe is most difficult to politically and infrastructurally manage.

DC has no options but to look forward. Counties like Montgomery will tend to be stuck between to propositions, a more bucolic past and more urbanized future.