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.
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.
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| 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.
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| Another view of John's neighborhood and the cafe. |
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| Yet another view of John's neighborhood. |
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| 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. |
