Is the D.C. area the second best MSA in the country?

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by DC's Finest

^^^^^^Right! And going back to my first point. If North Korea lobs a nuke at California, keep waiting for a response from hillbilly Sacramento.

If NK lobs a nuke at DC then Airforce 1 takes off and the rest of you DC'ers are equally ****ed. lol

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by MDAllstar

Only in America would someone try to argue that power is not in the nation's capital. LOL.....and yet D.C. is the number one economy in the country right now because the country will always protect it's nation's capital. We should have businesses flock to be near the government. The governemnt runs everything in this country. We should be protected, we are the brain of the entire operation. D.C., London, Paris, and Tokyo are all responsible for the rest of their countries. If any of these cities fall, their countries fall.

But instead, you have companies leaving DC (like Exxon moving all of their DC area employees to Houston by 2015).

Look, I love the DC area and it is still on my short list of places to live. The Metro system is top notch and I love the urbanity of DC, but the people are rude. If DC's residents were more like Baltimore's (nice people there), it would be a better metro area. But DC attracts a lot of the rude types for some reason.

[frsno1]

Originally Posted by DC's Finest

^^^^^^Right! And going back to my first point. If North Korea lobs a nuke at California, keep waiting for a response from hillbilly Sacramento.

Wow talk about a child like response! Ooh now gonna go with the whole "North Korea" bit cause you didn't agree with what I said. Lmao. Ok dude, now your making it seem like DC has all the nukes and missles and weapons inside of it's 60 whatever square miles while out here in peace loving California, we don't have any such thing. We have the largest military presence in the nation.

[KodeBlue]

DC is best MSA because the president lives there??? does 1 person really make or break a region??

[DC's Finest]

No one is Cali has authorization to push any nuke button until the President says so. So much for that!

[stoic]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

Because it makes DC look good.


Seriously... who is actually thinking about museums when they move somewhere? Public transportation on the other hand is actually important.

One thing that should be said in defense of counting museums (or things of that ilk): while obviously most people don't go to museums that often (and are often more likely to visit museums when visiting other cities than their own) museums are a good proxy for a city's caliber, cultural influence, and for the general wealth and sophistication of their populations.
A city that has the resources and the priorities to house museums of great importance is a city with a different character from a city that does not.
DC, on this regard, is actually an EXCEPTION to this rule. Washington's important museums are not a reflection of great wealth, philanthropy, a living local art scene, or the importance the city's residents attract to housing great art. Rather, it is a function of the federal government establishing and funding national museums in the capital city. The patrons of these museums, too, are for the most part the scores of tourists who visit Washington (as capital) year round.
Obviously, the presence of these monuments adds something of significance to Washington's cultural richness and importance, but it doesn't serve the same sort of informative role that great museums or other art venues do in gauging a city's cultural character and importance.
Washington's weakness on this front can be seen in the performing arts. The National Symphony Orchestra is surprisingly weak for a city of Washington's caliber. So an art institution that actually depends on local patronage is less successful in Washington than in cities like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Atlanta, that would normally be considered less significant than DC for cultural purposes (not to bash those cities at all, btw), and certainly less than LA, SF, Chicago, Boston, Philly, or NY.