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Yes and I stand by that. I'm sorry bro, get in airplane and travel to Austin. Go out on 6th st or Rainey on a Saturday night and tell me with a straight face that U St is comparable. It's just not. That's OK.
How about you travel to U Street. Hit up 9th and U Street to start. Then walk down U street. Turn left and walk down 14th street. Then head over to Connecticut Avenue. Then continue up 18th street to Adams Morgan.
There isn’t a single walk in Austin that comes anywhere near that walk. That goes for Austin, Philadelphia, Boston, Nashville, and many other cities. If you have a walk like the one I just mentioned, point it out. That’s over an hour walk.
Last edited by MDAllstar; 10-09-2023 at 08:02 PM..
If a new version of this thread was updated, Austin would bound to be in the Top 10, and probably closer to being in the top 4 or 5.
Surely you jest.
NY, Chicago, Philly, Boston, SF are a lock on top 5
LA, DC and Seattle are a lock for top 8.
At best Austin arguments start at 9.
However, I think more people would rank San Diego, Miami, Pittsburgh, even Portland, Cleveland, Atlanta... Ahead of Austin.
Objectively, 15-25 is more like it. After about #8 it gets more subjective so you could probably stretch the argument for 9-25 but I doubt many would rank Austin higher than Miami.
How about you travel to U Street. Hit up 9th and U Street to start. Then walk down U street. Turn left and walk down 14th street. Then head over to Connecticut Avenue. Then continue up 18th street to Adams Morgan.
There isn’t a single walk in Austin that comes anywhere near that walk. That goes for Austin, Philadelphia, Boston, Nashville, and many other cities. If you have a walk like the one I just mentioned, point it out. That’s over an hour walk.
Are we pretending DC is some elite nightlife destination now? You can absolutely snake thru U City/Center City South Philly for over an hour and gave constant vibrancy
Dc is nowhere close to free and clear of Boston and Philly in any regard
Are we pretending DC is some elite nightlife destination now? You can absolutely snake thru U City/Center City South Philly for over an hour and gave constant vibrancy
Dc is nowhere close to free and clear of Boston and Philly in any regard
Snake through U City/Center City passing nothing but bars and clubs for over an hour? Where? Which streets? I’ll map it out and measure the distance. We can also list what spots you will pass on the walk. One thing that is very unique to DC is nightlife corridors. Even NYC lacks a walk like that at 2am in the morning on a Friday night. I’ve been to NYC more times than I can remember and there isn’t a single walk like the one I mentioned. There are thousands of venues in NYC, but they aren’t concentrated like DC corridors.
The difference here is the size. I think Austin has less people in a smaller space so I can see the argument for it having more people in that tiny area. If all the people along the hour walk had to fit into the few blocks in Austin, you wouldn’t even be able to walk.
Yeah, there seems to be twp overlapping debates going on. There is a debate on whether Austin is a top 10 downtown that has evolved into a DC vs Austin downtown debate. Despite Austin having more of a concentrated entertainment district, I think DC clearly has a downtown that is on another level in terms of scale. But, when you compare DC to the other below NYC tier downtowns (SF, Chi, Bos, Philly), I think it's a very fair argument that DC's downtown doesn't have as much architectural character, streetlife and mixed use activity.
It's funny, when this started I didn't mean to directly compare Austin to DC. My stance on Austin this entire thread was "pretty good well-rounded downtown, probably not quite top 10". I brought up DC just because it was mentioned as being one of the elite downtowns, and I don't know, I just always found "downtown" to the lamest part of DC (a city I quite like in general). I'll admit that I'm not sure I like its downtown more than say San Diego, Portland, Denver, Austin, etc, but my main point was like you said, it's a lot less interesting than some of the other major legacy cities. Obviously it's a mammoth from an office standpoint and in built form density and scale but some other places are just more fun and/or livable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MDAllstar
How about you travel to U Street. Hit up 9th and U Street to start. Then walk down U street. Turn left and walk down 14th street. Then head over to Connecticut Avenue. Then continue up 18th street to Adams Morgan.
There isn’t a single walk in Austin that comes anywhere near that walk. That goes for Austin, Philadelphia, Boston, Nashville, and many other cities. If you have a walk like the one I just mentioned, point it out. That’s over an hour walk.
Buddy, I have hit up U st many times over more than a decade. You don't get it, I have friends that live in DC, NoVA, and Baltimore and travel up there every year or two. I love to spend time at the museums during the day and hang out with my buddies in this evenings. U St is a cool hang out, but it's not an impressive density of nightlife compared to Austin, TX. It just isn't. That's ok. There are some places that are like, say New Orleans or Vegas, Nashville, Miami, etc. DC is not in that category. There is just a fundamental layout difference. DC has "neighborhood bars" all over the place that people go to. Much of Austin doesn't have this, and there is an established culture of traveling downtown to meet up with your friends and party.
As far as a long stretch of nightlife, 6th st. has about 2.5 miles of nightlife from "West 6th" to "East 6th". This stretch connects to Red River St which is loaded with live music venues and is about a 5 minute walk from Rainey St which is another set of 20-30 bars in 3 blocks. There is a pretty substantial group of nightlife we are talking about here.
But, the bigger point was not the length of it (obviously DC is a bigger city that has more stuff overall), but the concentration of it. There just isn't any place in DC with the density of bars of dirty 6th or Rainey st. The closest I've seen is Adams Morgan and it's half the size of Rainey St, much less dirty 6th. That's what I meant by there is nowhere in DC like this.
How about you travel to U Street. Hit up 9th and U Street to start. Then walk down U street. Turn left and walk down 14th street. Then head over to Connecticut Avenue. Then continue up 18th street to Adams Morgan.
There isn’t a single walk in Austin that comes anywhere near that walk. That goes for Austin, Philadelphia, Boston, Nashville, and many other cities. If you have a walk like the one I just mentioned, point it out. That’s over an hour walk.
It's funny, when this started I didn't mean to directly compare Austin to DC. My stance on Austin this entire thread was "pretty good well-rounded downtown, probably not quite top 10". I brought up DC just because it was mentioned as being one of the elite downtowns, and I don't know, I just always found "downtown" to the lamest part of DC (a city I quite like in general). I'll admit that I'm not sure I like its downtown more than say San Diego, Portland, Denver, Austin, etc, but my main point was like you said, it's a lot less interesting than some of the other major legacy cities. Obviously it's a mammoth from an office standpoint and in built form density and scale but some other places are just more fun and/or livable.
Buddy, I have hit up U st many times over more than a decade. You don't get it, I have friends that live in DC, NoVA, and Baltimore and travel up there every year or two. I love to spend time at the museums during the day and hang out with my buddies in this evenings. U St is a cool hang out, but it's not an impressive density of nightlife compared to Austin, TX. It just isn't. That's ok. There are some places that are like, say New Orleans or Vegas, Nashville, Miami, etc. DC is not in that category. There is just a fundamental layout difference. DC has "neighborhood bars" all over the place that people go to. Much of Austin doesn't have this, and there is an established culture of traveling downtown to meet up with your friends and party.
As far as a long stretch of nightlife, 6th st. has about 2.5 miles of nightlife from "West 6th" to "East 6th". This stretch connects to Red River St which is loaded with live music venues and is about a 5 minute walk from Rainey St which is another set of 20-30 bars in 3 blocks. There is a pretty substantial group of nightlife we are talking about here.
But, the bigger point was not the length of it (obviously DC is a bigger city that has more stuff overall), but the concentration of it. There just isn't any place in DC with the density of bars of dirty 6th or Rainey st. The closest I've seen is Adams Morgan and it's half the size of Rainey St, much less dirty 6th. That's what I meant by there is nowhere in DC like this.
The point I was making is we are both right and talking about two different things. If DC only had a few blocks to cram all the nightlife for the city into an area the size of Downtown Austin, it would be different. Instead, Downtown Austin could fit fives times into Downtown DC from Union Market to Foggy Bottom so I agree the concentration is higher in Austin. Downtown DC is way too big to ever look and feel like anywhere in Austin.
Nightlife in DC stretches across the city from H Street to Georgetown and from Navy Yard to U Street. It’s apples and oranges so there is no way to compare them. I only responded when you made the comment that no place in DC is like the area in Austin you’re referring to, but I can see where you’re coming from because DC’s nightlife is so much larger that you are correct in saying there aren’t any blocks as packed as the area you mentioned. Instead of 6 blocks, there are 50 blocks.
How about you travel to U Street. Hit up 9th and U Street to start. Then walk down U street. Turn left and walk down 14th street. Then head over to Connecticut Avenue. Then continue up 18th street to Adams Morgan.
There isn’t a single walk in Austin that comes anywhere near that walk. That goes for Austin, Philadelphia, Boston, Nashville, and many other cities. If you have a walk like the one I just mentioned, point it out. That’s over an hour walk.
Now you’re just exaggerating.
U Street, especially towards 9th, and Adams Morgan are true bar districts. 14th and Connecticut have some bars, fast food spots, restaurants, and everything in between.
Philadelphia doesn’t have a walk like that!?
I mean, even in Boston which is by no means a nightlife destination, a walk down Seaport Blvd starting at Harpoon to the bridge and then over to Congress St packs as much of a punch as U Street / 14th. Dozens of Breweries, lounges, rooftops, and restaurants that convert to high-end nightlife spots. Boylston starting in Fenway all the way down and over to Newbury is as good of a stretch as Connecticut and 18th, both to drink and east (even better shopping). I’d agree it’s missing Adams Morgan, as that would be more like a Southie/South End.
Again, no offense to Austin, but your entire downtown is the size of a single neighborhood within Downtown DC. I said in my last post that I agree Austin definitely crams more people in those tiny spaces. DC’s nightlife corridors are way too large for people to ever be concentrated into a few blocks so you’re right. You’re comparing 10,000 people and I’m comparing 50,000 people. DC probably isn’t putting 10,000 people into any one place. They’re spread over multiple areas throughout the urban core.
The point I was making is we are both right and talking about two different things. If DC only had a few blocks to cram all the nightlife for the city into an area the size of Downtown Austin, it would be different. Instead, Downtown Austin could fit fives times into Downtown DC from Union Market to Foggy Bottom so I agree the concentration is higher in Austin. Downtown DC is way too big to ever look and feel like anywhere in Austin.
Nightlife in DC stretches across the city from H Street to Georgetown and from Navy Yard to U Street. It’s apples and oranges so there is no way to compare them. I only responded when you made the comment that no place in DC is like the area in Austin you’re referring to, but I can see where you’re coming from because DC’s nightlife is so much larger that you are correct in saying there aren’t any blocks as packed as the area you mentioned. Instead of 6 blocks, there are 50 blocks.
All I'm saying man is that you need to do a party weekend in Austin and tell me that DC outclasses it in nightlife.
There are many ways that DC outclasses Austin. It is the nation's capital. Getting ****ed up is not one of them lol. There is a reason why if you google "top US ciites for nightlife" Austin makes every list.
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