An interesting tidbit in this article about the D.C. housing market (boldface mine):

“The National Guard were deployed on Aug. 18, and you can see a pullback in pending sales and showings for properties in the District of Columbia. I got the sense that people were already feeling uncertain, and now they’re a whole group of people saying, either (A) I hear there’s a lot of crime because we’re putting National Guard on the street, so I don’t want to move to D.C. Or (B) this is ridiculous. The federal government is in D.C., and I don’t want to be part of that kind of thing,” she said. “And it’s still taking some time for prospective buyers to want to take a look back at the District, particularly in the condo market.”

Send the Guard troops home now. And, of course, D.C. statehood now.