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I am sorry for you, but this is a way of life and a reality for most recent college grads earning entry level salaries in most expensive metro areas. Your problems are not specific to DC as much as you want them to sound so. It is common to get angry at an area where you live because this is the perspective you have.
I think if you start with expectations that some of these complaints are only specific to DC area you may set yourself up for disappointment elsewhere. I've lived in SF, DC, Seattle, LA and Manhattan. No place is better than the other place when it comes to the most commonly mentioned complaints of the expensive big city life. Business offices spread out all over the place in the burbs, crazy traffic, high COL with respect to entry level salaries, young people forced to room together, families forced to move to outlying burbs to afford anything with family-friendly sq. footage and good schools, it's all common to all these areas. My advice would be to stay away from them all and move somewhere where you entry level salary will take you further (even if it's less) if this is your most important goal.
Let me guess you live in Ashburn?? No one with any common sense in there head would read what you just wrote and agree with you on 95% of that nonsense. I have never met anyone who has come here from out of town who didn't tell me that DC was one of their top 5 American cities they would live in.
Do me a favor and you take those same reasons and that list and apply that to every other top 10 metro area in the country and see how the others pan out...Minus the false statements like there are only republicans in Nova, and Dems in Maryland, that foolish comment about no one having any sense of style, and that blatant disrespecting of the cleanest and 2nd busiest subway system in the country in Metro, also find me a major metro area of this type of importance that doesn't have traffic problems, and your gross exaggeration of the weather which is a minuscule factor of what makes or breaks the lifestyle in this area.
Hmmm, I take it you weren't affected by the Metro derailing in June to get all self-righteous about someone simply stating that Metro had it's share of problems. Metro all intensive purposes is convenient and clean, but let's not kid ourselves by calling it superior when needs major improvements.
All in all, I neither hate nor love DC, for now it serves me well. I can fully understand why people love it and thrive here. At the same token I can easily understand why people hate it here.
Last edited by TrippingJay; 11-02-2009 at 03:13 PM..
Hmmm, I take it you weren't affected by the Metro derailing in June to get all self-righteous about someone simply stating that Metro had it's share of problems. Metro all intensive purposes is convenient and clean, but let's not kid ourselves by calling it superior when needs major improvements.
Metro is exhibit A for what happens when public infrastructure is not properly funded. The backlog of maintenance, repairs and capital improvements is astounding, and yet it continues to lack a dedicated funding source. The one positive thing I was hoping would arise out of the deadly crash in June was that the government--both state and local--would see the critical need to provide Metro with much needed funds for infrastructure repair and improvements. But to date, that hasn't happened.
[/quote=14thandYou;11438086]It's part of the general over-inflation of DC area real estate that has gone on over the last 10 years or so. I get why housing in Georgetown and Dupont is expensive...Reston, Manassas and Woodbridge, I don't get that at all.
Yup, I definitely agree D.C. area real estate is generally over-inflated
We're not Buffalo, but we're not Tampa either. We get a couple of moderate snowfalls every year, and January and February highs are typically around the freezing mark. People who have moved here from the south typically complain; people who have moved here from the north or plains states typically scratch their head in bewilderment.[/quote]
Metro is exhibit A for what happens when public infrastructure is not properly funded. The backlog of maintenance, repairs and capital improvements is astounding, and yet it continues to lack a dedicated funding source. The one positive thing I was hoping would arise out of the deadly crash in June was that the government--both state and local--would see the critical need to provide Metro with much needed funds for infrastructure repair and improvements. But to date, that hasn't happened.
That's one of the arguments I was going to use in that D.C. area real estate is over-hyped especially with perception due to the media.
I too had hoped that it would draw attention though, the Maryland MTA is facing the same problem which is a shame since I read those MARC trains can be very useful and they go up to 125 mph (not sure how often that occurs).
Originally Posted by tech2enable;11458582
[COLOR=black
Yup, I definitely agree D.C. area real estate is generally over-inflated[/color]
In the outter far-flung areas, yes. You may have forgotten, but we agreed on this issue quite a long time ago. I've never udnerstood why people pay such prices to live in far-flung areas like Reston and Ashburn.
But the close-in and central DC real estate is what it is--the prices have sustained during the downturn and nationwide housing bubble, so I've no reason to believe they're tremendously over-valued.
That's one of the arguments I was going to use in that D.C. area real estate is over-hyped especially with perception due to the media.
I'm not getting the connection. Metro remains one of the most functional public transit systems in the country--what does that have to do with perceived real estate over-inflation (and why are you so infatuated with this topic)?
In the outter far-flung areas, yes. You may have forgotten, but we agreed on this issue quite a long time ago. I've never udnerstood why people pay such prices to live in far-flung areas like Reston and Ashburn.
Perhaps because they are close to a significant concentration of the region's high-paying jobs in the Dulles/Tysons area. There are a lot of people from all over the country who moved to that part of NoVa; they view places like Ashburn as similar to Plano, Texas, Cary, North Carolina or Roswell, Georgia; and, for a substantial number of those folks, proximity to DC is, at best, a neutral factor. If there are enough people with money who feel that way, it drives up the housing prices in newer communities some distance from the urban core.
Perhaps because they are close to a significant concentration of the region's high-paying jobs in the Dulles/Tysons area. There are a lot of people from all over the country who moved to that part of NoVa; they view places like Ashburn as similar to Plano, Texas, Cary, North Carolina or Roswell, Georgia; and, for a substantial number of those folks, proximity to DC is, at best, a neutral factor. If there are enough people with money who feel that way, it drives up the housing prices in newer communities some distance from the urban core.
Exactly!! I've lived in both Ashburn and Plano, and they are basically identical in terms of mindset and income, and if you were to look at firms that locate in those areas, you'll see that they tend to locate in parallel cities; the IT/telecom industry is notorious for this. For example, Verizon has a huge building out here in Ashburn, their main building in NJ (which they bought from AT&T) is about 40 miles away from NYC, and the main building in DFW is nowhere near the city. ATT has one of their main centers in Concord CA (30 miles from SF). If a company does have buildings in the city, they tend to be for support operations or sales/marketing. This does two things: it forces people in those industries to move to the suburbs to be closer to their employers, and in turn, makes them more suburban-minded. When you live 10-15 miles from the job, but 30 miles from the city, you tend to care less about being near the city, especially if you weren't raised in one. Most of my neighbors couldn't tell you how to get anywhere inside the Beltway without a map, and those who don't work in the city tend to shun public transit, although this may change with the coming of the Silver Line. They just don't care about DC at all. The schools tend to be top notch, along with the retail and dining options (at least from a suburban perspective), and it's insanely safe. That's what you're paying for. Reston on the other hand, is pricey because it seems to have a comparable number of jobs in the area to Tysons, and sits next to more expensive places like Oakton and Great Falls. The amount of tech jobs on both Sunrise Valley Drive and Sunset Hills Drive in Reston is just staggering. Amazingly enough, because of the housing crash, there are some good bargains to be had in Ashburn, and Plano is actually pretty cheap. It's mostly perception about the places that makes them seem expensive.
And tech2enable, you may need to take a look at CT/Westchester/North Jersey housing prices before jumping in like that again, and then come back with what you find. Those housing prices in many cases tend to be HIGHER once you add in taxes, and they are in general, much older. Please tell me why places like Stamford CT cost as much as they do. Metro-North access?
That being said, living in the outer 'burbs is killing me, I can't wait to move closer in.
Metro is exhibit A for what happens when public infrastructure is not properly funded. The backlog of maintenance, repairs and capital improvements is astounding, and yet it continues to lack a dedicated funding source. The one positive thing I was hoping would arise out of the deadly crash in June was that the government--both state and local--would see the critical need to provide Metro with much needed funds for infrastructure repair and improvements. But to date, that hasn't happened.
I completely agree and it's a shame that 5 months later nothing has really happened to improve the overall safety of Metro.
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