John Tagliaferro's Neighborhood - Rosslyn, Arlington County, VA

I placed John's condominium in Rosslyn, a community in Arlington County, VA, for several reasons:
- Several fantastic condominium buildings were being constructed around the time I began writing the outline for Suki I, in 2008. They had features like private elevators for each unit, ample parking, modern amenities, and high-level security.
- Close to a METRO station.
- Easy access to I-66 and other major highways.
- A generally quiet, safe neighborhood with a generally dense population of women within his dating age range within blocks.
- A great view (the view from John's balcony is borrowed from the view from Rep. Charlie Wilson's (D-TX) apartment, see Charlie Wilson's War).

The book begins in "the mid 2030s" and several years before that John's building was under construction. The contractor uses some unconventional techniques, advanced even for the future, that create problems with the inspectors (even though that is much less of a problem than in the current day) and slow the pace of filling the building.

John gets his premium unit at a great discount, good because he had a financial setback due to a fire in his old building and getting laid off from his defense contracting job. He started a new business, bought a bare condo and started building everything out, including his own furniture.

John Tagliaferro lives on an upper floor of a building like this, in 2030s Rosslyn (Arlington, VA) close to where this building is located.
John's building has private elevators, from the garage and lobby to each unit. He has multiple parking spaces for the several cars he keeps there at any one time, plus a guest spot.
His balcony is visible from several other residential buildings, constructed around the same time as his.
The interior was finished almost entirely by John.

Glimpse of a Building that Inspired the Fictional Condo Building John Tagliaferro Lives In

Rosslyn METRO:
These are the turnstiles Suki passes through on her first trip to John's building for her first Astronomy tutoring session.
These are also the turnstiles that she and Jackie cross paths in a few days after meeting John. Jackie does not recognize Suki in more exotic makeup and a fashionable dark suit.

The way I write the METRO system of the future, there is a one-time (low) fee to purchase a SmarTrip card, that is supposed to identify the user.  However, privacy advocates swap the cards in the old Food Court of Pentagon City Mall. The idea is to let METRO officials know ridership, but not know exactly who is going where.  Transportation professionals doubt the story that the system cares about ridership at all, since all trains are eight cars long and they run 24 hours per day, seven days per week.  Maximum capacity is always available and new techniques allow for track maintenance with minimal disruption.

The Cafe John likes to visit in his neighborhood.

In the 2010s, the closest Starbuck's Cafe to John's condo is the one pictured above. By the time he moves to the neighborhood, it is much larger and the building he lives in is closer to this location than the one that inspired my description of his building.

Another view of John's neighborhood and the cafe.

Yet another view of John's neighborhood.

This is just stupid and I am not putting anything like it in John's neighborhood.  It is a solar powered trash compactor.  In the future, valuable varieties of trash from buildings like John's is sold to keep condo fees down.  The unsellable trash is removed, for a fee, by trash companies and eventually ends up in landfills. The landfills are located in places that can't use the land for much else and they profit from the refuse of others.  Buildings lining the streets have trash receptacles that pay for marketable trash and there are severe community fines for leaving unmarketable trash on the street.  Scroungers scour the few public trash cans for marketable trash.

Court House METRO: Suki runs, crying, past this METRO stop after John orders her to leave his home during their second tutoring session. She runs full speed, non-stop, in 4" heels to Patricia's apartment between here and the Clarendon METRO.

Another view of the Court House METRO.

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John Explains the Universe to Suki

In Suki I, a part-time pursuit of John's is tutoring Math and Science to college students.  I enjoyed doing that when I was in college and noticed more than a few people in their 30s, 40s, and older who enjoyed tutoring college and high school students.  In cinema and books, the writing arts seem to be more frequently represented by older mentors and tutors.

Suki has hired John as an Astronomy tutor, but she is long out of college, with a PhD in Robotics, a Masters in Bionics and an MS in Mathematics.

This passage from a recent Stephen Hawking article captures a bit if the instruction in Suki I, during their first tutoring session.  However, the couple sticks with science without launching into religion:

The tale of how the primordial universe of hydrogen, helium and a bit of lithium evolved to a universe harboring at least one world with intelligent life like us is a tale of many chapters. The forces of nature had to be such that heavier elements—especially carbon—could be produced from the primordial elements, and remain stable for at least billions of years. Those heavy elements were formed in the furnaces we call stars, so the forces first had to allow stars and galaxies to form. Those in turn grew from the seeds of tiny inhomogeneities in the early universe.

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