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I'm straight and love Boston. I had a real great time in Boston for about 4 years off and on and I'm sorry if you didn't, but DC doesn't come close to Boston or NYC.
You tell me what's so great about DC. The tourists? The momuments? SW seafood market? U st? seeing the plane land above your head? G-town with their Abercrombie and fitch deal that they stole from Havard square about 10 + years ago?
what is so great that makes this city? Convince me, you and Bullet apparently love this city so much, you should be able to convince the "non-native" residents, instead of spilling some non-sense about local and not local crap from the 80's.
Yeah, you probably went to school in Boston or some entry-level career and had a good group of friends which colored your perception of it. You moved here and don't have that built-in network so you want the city to compensate for it. I get that. People have great times in small cities and miserable times in big ones with far more options, but it doesn't objectively make the smaller city more exciting. I could see enjoying college more there, but Bostonians tend to settle down early and pop out 6 kids, so DC's better for the grown-up crowd.
I've never heard anyone who's lived in both Boston and DC besides native New Englanders ever say Boston is better, and none have ever said it's more exciting, has better nightlife, or anything but having a couple better schools and bookstores. I thought Boston would at least be on par with DC, but it's profoundly provincial compared to DC's cosmopolitan vibe and is the quintessential collegetown. Everybody warned me ahead of time, but I guess I had to learn the hard way.
You keep talking about the generic federal stuff here, which leads me to believe you haven't really sunk into DC yet. To answer your question about why I like it here, I'll just re-post what I wrote in a previous post on this thread:
Quote:
For me, I just like the city better than life in the suburbs or most other cities. I like the neighborhoods far better than downtown. I like the nightlife but recognize its limitations. I like the food. I like the transportation choices. I find most of the people who come here interesting in some way even if there is a homogeneity to their aspirations. I like the bookstores and design shops and the trees that are abundant even in the dense neighborhoods. I find the parks in the neighborhoods far more interesting than the big federal stuff by the Mall. I get annoyed that the national media can't show the real DC during news or sports events, making it seem like we live in bunkers under the monuments.
- More than NYC, Pennsylavania, Texas and California?
largest museum complex in the world
-I agree. Museums are what makes a great cities.
top-ranking museums and art galleries
- Top ranking as what? It's better than Georgia but it's not as good as Maryland, Boston, Philly, and NYC?
one of the nation's most extensive metro systems
- Considering that there are only handful of cities in US that is worth the money to build a subway system, how "extensive" is the DC's metro system? Is it better than Boston, NYC,?
iconic historic sites
seat of the most powerful government in the world
surrounded by two very good states
mountains, lakes, parks, beaches nearby
practically any outdoor activity you could ever partake in
etc., etc.
I stopped answering because I thought I was reading the tourist pamphlet.
Why do you keep bringing NYC into this? No city in the US can match NYC in terms of volume of the qualities mentioned.
But, do you really believe there are more people from all over the world in Boston than the capital of the United States? Do you honestly not realize that DC's Metro blows Boston's subway / trolley system out of the water? I've never heard anyone even compare the two. And, yes, DC's is the 2nd most used behind NY.
The Smithsonian museums, though not really that integral to the quality of life here, are far and away superior to anything else in the U.S.
I think you might have your Beantown goggles on a little too tight.
Yeah, you probably went to school in Boston or some entry-level career and had a good group of friends which colored your perception of it. You moved here and don't have that built-in network so you want the city to compensate for it. I get that. People have great times in small cities and miserable times in big ones with far more options, but it doesn't objectively make the smaller city more exciting. I could see enjoying college more there, but Bostonians tend to settle down early and pop out 6 kids, so DC's better for the grown-up crowd.
I've never heard anyone who's lived in both Boston and DC besides native New Englanders ever say Boston is better, and none have ever said it's more exciting, has better nightlife, or anything but having a couple better schools and bookstores. I thought Boston would at least be on par with DC, but it's profoundly provincial compared to DC's cosmopolitan vibe, is the quintessential collegetown, and its nightlife is very limited. Everybody warned me ahead of time, but I guess I had to learn the hard way. You keep talking about the generic federal stuff here, which leads me to believe you haven't really sunk into DC yet. To answer your question about why I like it here, I'll just re-post what I wrote in a previous post on this thread:
I never had a job in Boston, or went to school there. I'm not having a miserable time here in DC either. You obviously "color" me miserable, but I was keeping with the topic, "Is D.C. Woth it to you?".
I don't even understand what your "pop out 6 kids, so DC's better for the grown-up crowd" means. If you don't pop out kids, aren't you still single and probably not that mature, since you're just living for yourself?
That whole thing sounds like you're describing yourself and honestly, I'm not a therapist, so I don't know, but all I know is that NYC and Boston has better schools (real education, not some politically motivated one), better block orientation for pub, bar, night life (so close to each other - or so intimate in the neighborhood), and apparently more interesting people living there according to this conversation.
Bookstores? I don't know how old most people are on this thread, but don't most people buy books digitally as a PDF and read it off their tablet, kindle or computer? I have yet to find a bookstore that could match an online digital library. Don't forget to be eco-friendly.
The thing is, this topic is so vague.
How is D.C. worth it to me? Is it financially? Culturally? Historically?
Every age group will say a different thing. But if you start generally comparing DC with other NE cities, you'll have a difficult time coming out on top.
And honestly, I could use San Francisco if you want. The point is that if you only know what orange tastes like, how can you know how much an apple is worth to you?
I never had a job in Boston, or went to school there. I'm not having a miserable time here in DC either. You obviously "color" me miserable, but I was keeping with the topic, "Is D.C. Woth it to you?".
I don't even understand what your "pop out 6 kids, so DC's better for the grown-up crowd" means. If you don't pop out kids, aren't you still single and probably not that mature, since you're just living for yourself?
That whole thing sounds like you're describing yourself and honestly, I'm not a therapist, so I don't know, but all I know is that NYC and Boston has better schools (real education, not some politically motivated one), better block orientation for pub, bar, night life (so close to each other - or so intimate in the neighborhood), and apparently more interesting people living there according to this conversation.
Bookstores? I don't know how old most people are on this thread, but don't most people buy books digitally as a PDF and read it off their tablet, kindle or computer? I have yet to find a bookstore that could match an online digital library. Don't forget to be eco-friendly.
The thing is, this topic is so vague.
How is D.C. worth it to me? Is it financially? Culturally? Historically?
Every age group will say a different thing. But if you start generally comparing DC with other NE cities, you'll have a difficult time coming out on top.
And honestly, I could use San Francisco if you want. The point is that if you don't know what orange tastes like, how can you know how much an apple is worth to you?
So you weren't working or going to school in Boston? No wonder it was such a good time. This was perhaps your most appalling assumption in that whole post:
Quote:
If you don't pop out kids, aren't you still single and probably not that mature, since you're just living for yourself?
Wow. Just wow. People who marry are inherently more mature? Uh huh... Takes a lot more than dependence on another person to make one mature. Someday you'll learn that. Best of luck to you and yours.
DC is more important than Boston on the world stage. However, I won't knock Boston. It's certainly a cool and historic city and has a lot of urban qualities I like.
So you weren't working or going to school in Boston? No wonder it was such a good time. This was perhaps your most appalling assumption in that whole post:
Wow. Just wow. People who marry are inherently more mature? Uh huh... Takes a lot more than dependence on another person to make one mature. Someday you'll learn that. Best of luck to you and yours.
I still don't understand why 1991 was so much better than 2011. So far your responses to this inquiry have been vague and cryptically anecdotal. So why don't you give three specific examples that an out of touch Georgian such as myself can understand. Also, if 1991 was so awesome what can we do to restore DC to its "former glory", because we can't kick out the "transplants".
You want three specific examples? Ok. I will give 3 examples.
I will make this brief and to the point. All of DC, Md and Va is included here.
Cost of living. The cost of living here is insane and has skyrocked out of control compared to 1991. I know of a few people who are leasing an apartment and their monthly rent is almost twice as much as some area house payments. The rents keep going up and up. Do not even get me started on the inflated prices on some of these urban condos that have been popping up everywhere.
Traffic and reliability of public transportation. The traffic here now is much worse than in 1991 by far. We used to drive from NW to SE to PG over to Alexandria to Arlington then back to DC over to Montgomery County and back to DC all within the span of 3-4 hours during the middle of a weekday. We would eat, visit some friends and family depending on where we we at. All of this in under 5 hours. Try doing that now and see what happens. Metrorail is also no longer reliable. The trains are overcrowded and every day there is a delay of some kind. I would rather walk than take metro. Their prices are insane and keep going up and up.
RFK Stadium and the Redskins in 1991. FedEx field is a nightmare. The atmosphere and game day experience over at FedEx is a joke. RFK was much easier to travel to and the atmosphere was second to none. When traveling over to FedEx for a game one has to add on at least extra 2 hours for the commute. Getting to and from FedEx is a nightmare. Do not even get me started on Daniel Snyder and how he ruined the team. The Redskins are now the laughing stock ofthe entire NFL. This was not the case in 1991 when the Redskins were super bowl champions during the 1991-1992 season.
I intentionally left out nightclubs, bars, restaurants, riots etc... from this posting because those things are all a matter of personal taste though I could easily argue the state of music and going out on the town in 1991 was much better than it is right now.
By no means am I all up on 1991's n*tsack either. I just chose this year as an example because it represents 20 years ago. I would also easily choose 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998 DC over 2011 DC too. Once again I can only comment on what I experienced firsthand.
My experience back in the days was not all about shootings, crackhouses and bordellos. Yes there were some incidents here and there but it was not a daily occurence by any means. At least it was not a daily occurence where I was at and I was all over the damn place.
PG Plaza, Lakeforest Mall, Iverson Mall, Pentagon City Mall, Crystal City Underground, Beacon Mall, Springfield Mall, Ballston, Potomac Mills, Tysons Corner, Dupont Down Under, Union Station, Georgetown Park Mall, Skyline Mall, Landmark Mall, Fair Oaks Mall etc... I was literally everywhere.
Lots of miles on my Jordans back in the days.
Last edited by WASHINGTON BULLET; 02-02-2011 at 03:29 AM..
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