26 Reasons to Love Washington (Washingtonian) (cliquey, home, neighborhood)

[Dredre]

26 Reasons to Love Washington - News & Features (washingtonian.com)

In case you are lazy (But take note that the article expounds greatly on most of these points):
1. You can See the Sky
2. The Obamas Are Our Neighbors
3. We Have a Reader’s Paradise
4. You can Discover the World Here
5. Reader Quote
6. Women Have Real Choices
7. Reader Quote
8. Employers Want to Be Here
9. The Caps Are Regular Joes
10. Our Kids Speak Many Languages
11. Reader Quote
12. Our Lives Have Beautiful Backdrops
13. Reader Quote
14. We Live Where Others Just Visit
15. Reader Quote
16. We Have Experts in Everything
17. Reader Quote
18. Our Cabbies Are Worth Talking To
19. Reader Quote
20. We’re Helping to Save the World
21. Reader Quote
22. You Can Find Home---Wherever Home May Be
23. Reader Quote
24. You Can See Wonderful History in Our Museums
25. We’re Inventing the Future
26. You Could Meet These People at a Party

[Johnny B. Fury]

Thanks for posting this! I look forward to reading the article.

[BWALDON]

I've been in DC for 20yrs & love it!

[Fuschia99]

We are trying to relocate back to DC. We used to own a home in Silver Spring back in 2002 and my child was born in the District. I can't wait to go back there after living in Florida and now, ugh, Detroit suburbs. The city is bombed out looking and the burbs are cold and dull. After living away from the DC area for 7 years, I can say that going back there will feel like home and a refreshing change from what I've experienced. I guess you don't know what you have until you don't have it anymore.

The criticisms of DC are such crap to me. I can't believe that people find the population that cold and self-absorbed. Sure, there are some arrogant, one-upping, Jonesin people there but there is also much more refinement and sensitivity to cultural and political subjects than any other place I've lived. I so miss that! Families can exist there just fine, you just have to decide what's important in terms of budget and scale down your expectations of car and housing. I loved my neighborhood when I lived there b/c the neighbors were warm and friendly. And if you wanted some excitement, something new and different culturally, there was the Metro nearby to take you anywhere in the District. I remember striking up conversations with people in coffee bars, bookstores, restaurants, well, anywhere and most of them were interesting and had tales to share of traveling and living other places. We're such transients now ourselves that we will just fit right in when we go back, I'm sure. LOL.

You want cold, cliquey and super rude, not to mention uncurious, try the suburbs of Detroit. And it's really tough if you're raising a kid here.

[Bigbluelandrover]

Fuschia,
I am org from Ohio (Cinci) right down 1-75! Yes, a lot of Midwestern cities are like what you described Detroit to be. I'm currently in Silver Spring and love it also. I have met so many interresting,friendly and intelligent people here. My kids have friends from all over the globe. I do miss the lighter traffic and better housing options but this is home and I love it.

[dcsfanatic]

Tell that to the knucklehead bloggers on whyihatedc

[colonialsfan]

I agree with the above poster 100%. I am surprised by the criticisms of DC as well. I used to live in DC and now live in a bland midwestern suburb with "friendly" people. Only thing is -- the people are not friendly AT ALL. I have never met such judgmental and cliquey people in my life. At least the "rude" people in DC did not care enough to judge you. My coworkers are nice enough, but the other moms at my kid's school events are terrible!

I find DC so international, diverse, interesting, and tolerant... Overall, a great place to live.

[cpterp]

The Balt/Wash Area is the best place to live in the country hands-down. You have a little of everything here. Thanks to the feds well paying jobs are plentiful, there's excellent mass transit, the shore and mountains are both only an hour away, and there's more than plenty of things to do.The only downsides are the lame sports teams (except the Caps and Ravens), the worst of both worlds (hot summers and cold winters), and the insane cost-of-living.

[JimGriffith]

Originally Posted by dcsfanatic

Tell that to the knucklehead bloggers on whyihatedc

The knucklehead bloggers on whyihatedc would offer a point by point takedown of the entire exercise in absurdity this article represents.

Since I happen to hate that magazine, I'll do it myself just to play devil's advocate.

1. Wow, the sky. How awesome. I mean, the antiquated and idiotic height restrictions drive up the cost of housing and office space, plus they're responsible for the dearth of street level retail all over the city, but hey, isn't that the Big Dipper? How cool!

2. Ooooh, why stop with calling them "the Obamas"? Aren't we supposed to all pretend that Barack and Michelle are our friends? I guess I'm not hopeychangey enough, but all they do for me is tie up traffic. He's a salaried government employee just like my other neighbors, except he lives in public housing.

From the article:"Time to celebrate a birthday? Take a cue from Michelle and head to Equinox, where the Obamas celebrated her birthday with friends including Valerie Jarrett. Want a piece of Americana Washington style? Grab a half-smoke and a sweet tea at Ben’s Chili Bowl, just as Barack did when he dropped by before his inauguration."

That paragraph made me throw up a little in my mouth. I'm going to stop reading and just address the bullet points.

3. I've spent more time in independent bookstores in cities like Philly and Denver than I've spent in the Library of Congress.

4. You can do it better in the Navy.

6. Women have real choices in a lot of places. It's not 1956 in the rest of the USA, nor is it Saudi Arabia.

8. More like forced to be here. If they were handing out gazillion dollar federal contracts for little or no work in San Diego, we'd all be better off.

9. No they aren't. Even so, who cares?

10. My kids only speak one, but I'm hopeful they'll learn others. Nevertheless, I'm not convinced it's such a utoptian benefit that my school district needs 19 translators.

12. Speak for yourself. The backdrop to my life is the dashboard of a Hyundai and a cubicle wall.

14. So do people who live in Maui. And Key West. And Aspen. And 6,000 other places. The main difference is most people don't want to stick around after they're done staring up at Lincoln's crotch.

16. You mean, the city is a magnet for borderline anti-social dorks from all over the world who can barely dress themselves?

18. No they aren't, unless you want to be prosylethized or berated.

20. Or perhaps we're halfway done with ruining it. That's why the rest of the country hates us. They put the government here, and we're doing it wrong.

22. Too trite for me to summon the will for a response.

24. True. And done by the time 4th grade field trip season was finished. It doesn't make up for the fact that my kid's teacher is illiterate.

25. No we aren't, and that's the smug attitute that incites probably 90% of the violence in this town.

26. This one convinced me the whole article was a parody. I could meet Keris Strug at a party! Hilarious. I'll await my invite to that one.

[TrippingJay]

Originally Posted by JimGriffith

The knucklehead bloggers on whyihatedc would offer a point by point takedown of the entire exercise in absurdity this article represents.

.

Heh. Very true. Thank you for a truly awesome response to a completely vapid article.

There are some hallmarks that the DC metro area offers, but really I don't find the area nearly as exciting as Washingtonian makes it out to be. There are just as many places around the country, including in the Mid-West that offer that same things as DC and in many cases do it better.