Airports: Where the Jobs Are, The Atlantic Cities, December 4, 2012

By Eric Jaffe

 As our Richard Florida pointed out in a series of posts last spring, airports play a "substantial role" in the economic growth of American cities. Their ability to facilitate the movement of goods and people may influence urban development as much as highways, railroads, and seaports did in previous centuries. They may also rival nearby central cities as anchors of employment, according to new research. . .

. . .  Overall employment growth within 2.5 miles of the top 25 airports exceeded the national average from both 1995 to 2002 and 2002 to 2009. That type of growth creates social needs of its own:

"As airports become major employment centres in and of themselves, their employees require a place to live and the full range of urban services, exerting a further influence on urban form." . . .

. . .  the researchers believe that as air travel increases in the coming years — it's "expected to double" in the next three decades — area job growth will do the same. . . .

Given Reston's proximity to Dulles International Airport and the arrival of Metrorail, we need to consider how the growth of the airport may shape commercial and residential growth in Reston's transit station areas.  

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