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You need to disappear because it obvious you don't know your way around DC by your assinine statements. Boston has greater density but DC's downtown swallows Boston's DT. DC has block after block of urban canyons that Boston cannot match. From Foggy Bottom up to Dupont Circle over to Union Station and back across Constitution to 23rd Street, DC has commercial office buildings. For those that say DC isn't urban, I think you get caught up in the whole monument thing. You can walk from Capitol Hill to Mt. Pleasant and back down to Georgetown and not find a surface parking lot.
I visit DC often as I have relatives there, and I live in Boston, so I have some sense of the differences. What I find in DC is that many of the seemingly most urban sections like Georgetown, are really not areas that service actual residents to any great extent. Yes, of course people live there, but it's more like a very fancy shopping center, made to look a certain way for the benefit of visitors. I'm not sure I'm stating this in an understandable way, but for me, it definitely does not have the same vibe as New York, Boston, or San Francisco. Maybe it is too polished.
It sounds like you're saying that parts f DC--such as Georgetown--feel contrived to you. I can understand why you might say that upon visiting Georgetown, but there's a couple of items worth pointing out:
You're probably equating Wisconsin Ave. and M Street as "Georgetown" since that's where most of the commercial action is, but in actuality Georgetown is a sizeable residential neighborhood. If you wander up some of the residential streets you'll find dry cleaners, markets, pharmacies, libraries, etc. The neighborhood does not simply exist along the M and Wisconsin corridors.
Secondly, Georgetown is but one of numerous neighborhoods in the city, many of which have an organic and "legitimate" feel. It's like basing your opinion of Boston only on Newbury Street, which feels as commercially contrived as, for instance, M Street.
There are other urban parts, but they aren't good places to live. U St, Logan, Col Heights, other areas in NW are okay, but still not that urban compared to a really urban city.
I love going to football games at Clemson...I saw the first ACC game between Clemson and Florida State a few years ago.
Haha yes, it's a great time out there with all the cows. The football games are amazing, I miss them sooooo much. I'm actually heading down for the Florida State game next month . First time I will have returned to Clemson since I graduated last Spring! So excited.
I actually got back from Washington DC last night. I spent the past 4 days down there for my cousin's wedding. We stayed in Alexandria, right next to Old Town, which was an absolutely gorgeous neighborhood. Very clean, pretty streetscapes.
I went to Georgetown on Saturday (Rhino Bar) and thought it was a beautiful neighborhood, though in all honesty I mostly stayed along M Street. We walked to and from the Foggy Bottom Metro, so we got to do a decent amount of walking.
We took a nice tour of the city while we were on the bus on our way to the reception at Farragut Square. The architecture in much of the city is absolutely amazing. Especially the government buildings. I will admit the fact that most of the buildings in the CBD are roughly the same height does give an odd feeling. It doesn't make it feel less urban, but it feels...different.
I feel that one of the main differences between Boston and DC's urbanity is street-layout. Boston is filled with winding, thin streets while DC has more of hulking mega-blocks. Both are good in their own right, but they just feel completely different.
You need to disappear because it obvious you don't know your way around DC by your assinine statements. Boston has greater density but DC's downtown swallows Boston's DT. DC has block after block of urban canyons that Boston cannot match. From Foggy Bottom up to Dupont Circle over to Union Station and back across Constitution to 23rd Street, DC has commercial office buildings. For those that say DC isn't urban, I think you get caught up in the whole monument thing. You can walk from Capitol Hill to Mt. Pleasant and back down to Georgetown and not find a surface parking lot.
And I work in Farragut area so obviously we have different definitions of urban. It does not feel that busy to me and that is what urban means to me. I don't think anyone disputes there are commercial office buildings as you point out.
DC has a massive CBD ( i think 3rd largest in the country ), but its density I think isnt so much (YET) within the CBD even though that is changing quickly with the growth of the condo market downtown, but rather in places like Adams-Morgan, Shaw, Gtown, Capitol Hill etc, where you DO find things like micro-communities. Infact, many people forget places like Alexandria and parts of Arlington are more densly populated than anywhere in DC. I see what people say about DC being too polished, but that kinda thing comes with being the most powerful city on earth with a huge tourist industry and the richest per capita neighborhoods in the nation. DC is deeper than shiny white buildings. 5.3 million of us actually live here too..
DC has a massive CBD ( i think 3rd largest in the country ), but its density I think isnt so much (YET) within the CBD even though that is changing quickly with the growth of the condo market downtown, but rather in places like Adams-Morgan, Shaw, Gtown, Capitol Hill etc, where you DO find things like micro-communities. Infact, many people forget places like Alexandria and parts of Arlington are more densly populated than anywhere in DC. I see what people say about DC being too polished, but that kinda thing comes with being the most powerful city on earth with a huge tourist industry and the richest per capita neighborhoods in the nation. DC is deeper than shiny white buildings. 5.3 million of us actually live here too..
And another 3 million just up the road 40 miles in Baltimore, which is also densely populated (with plenty of grit to balance DC's shine). To have two large non-Sunbelt cities both densely populated in close proximity to each other is a rarity.
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. First time I will have returned to Clemson since I graduated last Spring! So excited.
