I remember seeing pictures of the skyline of DC back in 2010 or so and was amazed at the number of cranes in the shot.
Dozens and dozens of major building projects going on. And I think it’s pretty safe to assume those weren’t private investors doing all of that.
Yup.
I remember those crane pix. Only place in the nation like that at the time.
Reminded me of what I read about in history books-about medieval, walled cities. The Beltway was just ‘the wall.’
Depends on whether you classify lobbyists as “private”. I suspect most of that building was done for Beltway Bandits of one stripe or another.