Hagerstown....what happened to ye?

[Dequindre]

I've lived in the Four State Region for 15 years, and Hagerstown has always had a somewhat sketchy reputation. I'm not sure where the responsibility ultimately lies, but it seems like Washington County as a whole has never really made an attempt to build off the success of Frederick County. At some point, Frederick County will be in a similar position as Montgomery County in terms of pricing and availability of housing, and Washington County can (if they're strategic about it) entice people to come over the mountain to get more "bang for their buck". That was happening back in the 2005/2006 timeframe when I moved here. I haven't really seen the "we'll try and attract higher-income earners that commute to DC" attitude in Washington County since that time.

[MidValleyDad]

People are already moving to Washington County, especially around Boonsboro to avoid the higher metro area prices. And the Washington County establishment is apparently doing everything they can to make sure they know they are not wanted.

[BaltimoreBruiser]

Hell of a commute from Hagerstown. But I also think Frederick->DC commute is crazy. lol

I've been on the fence about transferring to Ft Detrick, and Hagerstown has been a place of interest for me. Especially if it can move on a right track.

[Beetles]

Commuting to Montgomery County employment centers in Germantown and Gaithersburg and to Loudon County centers in Ashburn-Sterling-Rte 7 corridor are feeding the Frederick County housing market. To some extent, Washington County and Hagerstown may feed off that demand as house prices rise. These are obviously not normal times, so growth predictions based on the last 2 years are difficult. There are obstacles to further development. U.S. 15 is badly antiquated and inadequate as a reliable feeder route across the state line. Interstate 70 has become considerably more congested in daily traffic north of Frederick and is prone to traffic jams due mainly to poor highway design and inadequate capacity, particularly between Myersville and Clear Spring. There is no developed commuter rail from Hagerstown to the central counties and DC. There is right-of-way and rail from Hagerstown to Martinsburg, WV and theoretically on to the MARC system network, but it isn't upgraded for high-speed passenger service. So the decision to commute from Washington County to work anywhere south of Frederick carries a significant commuting time burden.


Jobs that pay well in Washington County are scarce. Of course, that hasn't kept the political forces in the downstate counties from incentivizing people from those areas to move to Washington County for reasons of availability of subsidized housing at lower taxpayer cost. Unfortunately that doesn't do much to locate those folks close to where adequately-paying jobs are most available. With new employment in Frederick County, that might change. The history of some of the larger former area employers that have left for other parts of the country shows a pattern of instability: low capital investment that is easily abandoned. Bechtel, State Farm, BP Solar all came with new jobs fanfare and all have gone. Mostly they were office park tenants had little capital investment.

[MidValleyDad]

Originally Posted by Beetles

Commuting to Montgomery County employment centers in Germantown and Gaithersburg and to Loudon County centers in Ashburn-Sterling-Rte 7 corridor are feeding the Frederick County housing market. To some extent, Washington County and Hagerstown may feed off that demand as house prices rise. These are obviously not normal times, so growth predictions based on the last 2 years are difficult. There are obstacles to further development. U.S. 15 is badly antiquated and inadequate as a reliable feeder route across the state line. Interstate 70 has become considerably more congested in daily traffic north of Frederick and is prone to traffic jams due mainly to poor highway design and inadequate capacity, particularly between Myersville and Clear Spring. There is no developed commuter rail from Hagerstown to the central counties and DC. There is right-of-way and rail from Hagerstown to Martinsburg, WV and theoretically on to the MARC system network, but it isn't upgraded for high-speed passenger service. So the decision to commute from Washington County to work anywhere south of Frederick carries a significant commuting time burden.

Jobs that pay well in Washington County are scarce. Of course, that hasn't kept the political forces in the downstate counties from incentivizing people from those areas to move to Washington County for reasons of availability of subsidized housing at lower taxpayer cost. Unfortunately that doesn't do much to locate those folks close to where adequately-paying jobs are most available. With new employment in Frederick County, that might change. The history of some of the larger former area employers that have left for other parts of the country shows a pattern of instability: low capital investment that is easily abandoned. Bechtel, State Farm, BP Solar all came with new jobs fanfare and all have gone. Mostly they were office park tenants had little capital investment.

You could have written that 25 years ago and it would have been just as true.

1)the rail from Hagerstown to Martinsburg is owned by CSX, possibly the most ANTI pax rail company on the continent. They don't want pax trains to hurt their profitable North South container trains. Also MD is tired of subsidizing rail transit for WV residents. WV has cut their portion of the subsidy several times inspite of the increasing ridership from WV locations

2) US 15 is the hostage of a MD-VA road squabble that goes back at least 50 years. MD wants the new DC bypass to offload I-95 to be east of DC, VA wants it to run west of DC up the US 15 Corridor. None of the landed gentry on either side of the Potomac want another crossing east of Brunswick to mess up their horse country.

3) Back in the late 80s and early 90s when I-270 was being improved none of the Western Maryland politicians (Fred & Wash County) would support widening it past the MoCo county line because they felt that the increased drive times based on limited capacity would reduce the pressure on development (Which they had encouraged by allowing their donors in the development industry carte blanche with rezoning ag to residential land. Some of us knew they were wrong then, everybody should realize they were wrong now.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by MidValleyDad

You could have written that 25 years ago and it would have been just as true.

1)the rail from Hagerstown to Martinsburg is owned by CSX, possibly the most ANTI pax rail company on the continent. They don't want pax trains to hurt their profitable North South container trains. Also MD is tired of subsidizing rail transit for WV residents. WV has cut their portion of the subsidy several times inspite of the increasing ridership from WV locations

2) US 15 is the hostage of a MD-VA road squabble that goes back at least 50 years. MD wants the new DC bypass to offload I-95 to be east of DC, VA wants it to run west of DC up the US 15 Corridor. None of the landed gentry on either side of the Potomac want another crossing east of Brunswick to mess up their horse country.

3) Back in the late 80s and early 90s when I-270 was being improved none of the Western Maryland politicians (Fred & Wash County) would support widening it past the MoCo county line because they felt that the increased drive times based on limited capacity would reduce the pressure on development (Which they had encouraged by allowing their donors in the development industry carte blanche with rezoning ag to residential land. Some of us knew they were wrong then, everybody should realize they were wrong now.

You could have shorthanded that just by saying The Maryland Way.