Which is the best east cost city? DC, Boston, Philly (Washington: 2013, apartment)

[Hikari616]

@R Small- I may have been born and currently live in Oregon, but I lived in my Colorado for 10 years. That is the place I call my home. So I can take extreme summers and winters. To be honest, I LOVE the cold!

@Tiger Beer- I've looked at a lot of cities because it is entertaining to me, including Pittsburgh (been a Penguins fan since I was six), Chicago. I don't know if I told you guys this but I want to be an event planner for a major hotel, so I kinda need to live in a big city that has events. Plus, I'd rather cheer for the Bruins over the Flyers since the Flyers and Penguins hate each other.

And your very right about stereotyping the different regions of this country, everybody has their opinions of the different cities in this country some are good and some are bad. You should always see the city or cities for yourself, to get your own take on it.

@KStreetQB- Thank you, for your advice. Well, to be honest there is a lot of reasons why I'm not a huge fan of Philly. Like the fact that they beat up fans of other sports teams. For example; this guy was from New Jersey went to Philly to watch a game of them playing his team (New York Rangers) after the game was over he and his friend where outside of Geno's then all of a sudden they get beat up 3 to 2 and everybody was just watching and recording what happened, and not doing anything about it. It turns out that guy was a Military Vet and got a concussion from being jumped. Everybody has a right to support their team!

[KStreetQB]

Originally Posted by Hikari616

@KStreetQB- Thank you, for your advice. Well, to be honest there is a lot of reasons why I'm not a huge fan of Philly. Like the fact that they beat up fans of other sports teams. For example; this guy was from New Jersey went to Philly to watch a game of them playing his team (New York Rangers) after the game was over he and his friend where outside of Geno's then all of a sudden they get beat up 3 to 2 and everybody was just watching and recording what happened, and not doing anything about it. It turns out that guy was a Military Vet and got a concussion from being jumped. Everybody has a right to support their team!

You'll get some heat for wearing an opposing team's jersey at any Philadelphia sporting event because we're passionate about our sports. We don't beat everyone up.

Your example is a drunk guy finding a stupid reason to fight someone else and it happened to be his jersey. If you want to live in a city where there are no drunk guys picking fights over stupid things, then don't look at Boston or DC either.

[Hikari616]

@KStreetQB- I can understand that, thats normal. I am sorry if I sounded rude or anything, I was just writing what I read on the internet. And this isn't the first time something like that has happened. Thats what I was trying to say. And I know its not just Philly either.

[KStreetQB]

No offense taken. We don't have the best reputation, but we really don't get violent that often.

[Hikari616]

I'll try to visit the cities before I make a decision on which one to live in.

[WASHINGTON BULLETS]

I am a born and raised DC native and I would rank Philadelphia and Boston over DC.

[wsamon]

I can't give much info about Boston, having only driven through it once, but I have family in the Philly suburbs and have lived in the DC area for quite a while.

I'm one of the many that's looking to leave DC, but I have to admit that it's a great city if you can deal with the horrible traffic (potentially at any day / hour, not just rush hours), high COL, prevailing work-first attitude, transient population, and (for me anyway) winters. The winters are actually pretty mild, I just don't like cold or snow much at all, and people around here don't know what to do when it snows either.

If you're OK with that stuff, it can be a great city, and far better than Philadelphia IMO. You do need to find your niche though, and part of that includes finding the right area to live (for me that turned out to be Old Town Alexandria). There's lots of pockets of nice, clean, walkable areas that include nearby amenities, restaurants, and nightlife. There are really nice areas both in the city proper and the nearby suburbs. I think a majority of both the city and the suburbs have a very pretty, well-kept look to them that you just don't find in the majority of Philly or Baltimore. I feel this, coupled with the lack of skyscrapers, provides a much needed, calming feeling to the area when you actually get a chance to stop and smell the roses.

The city itself brings lots of amenities. It has all 4 major sports teams, including the Capitals and Nationals, both of whom are quite good and young. Nearly every major musical act in the country will come through the region to perform at one of the many concert venues, including 3 big "arena sized" ones and multiple mid to small ones. There's lots of parks and some of the best museums in the country, many of which are free. There's a whole bunch of good restaurants covering many different cuisines and styles. Whether ethnic, political, ceremonial, or culinary, it seems like there's always a festival of some kind going on. There's also lots of recreational sports leagues to join, including all the major sports and more obscure ones like dodgeball, kickball, ski-ball, beer (water) pong, etc. Don't forget all the monuments and historical buildings! Sometimes it's easy to forget just how lucky I am to be playing softball right next to the Washington Monument, one of the most iconic symbols of our country.

Most of this is made easy to get to with one of the cleanest, best constructed, and easiest to navigate subway systems in America. Unfortunately, its hours of operation, frequency of trains, gaps in location, and cost leave something to be desired.

DC is also less than a 1/2 day's drive from forested mountains (admittedly small, rounded ones), multiple beaches - including the Outer Banks, Ocean City MD, and the Jersey shore -, theme parks including 2 Six Flags and Hershey Park, historical Civil War sites like Gettysburg, and many major metro areas including Pittsburgh, Philly, NYC, Atlantic City, Baltimore, Richmond, and the research triangle. Three major international airports will get you just about anywhere in the world you want to go for a good price.

It also sports one of the nation's best job markets covering most major career fields and paying good salaries. Between that and the obvious political importance, you'll also find a very diverse group of people in the area. Many different ethnic groups are represented here in significant numbers, as are people from all areas of the country and with many different beliefs. One thing that most people have in common is a high degree of intelligence and an ambition to either improve their career or make an impact of some kind on the world. Of course, that directly leads to some of the bigger negatives as well (work-first transient mentality with long hours at the job, lots of travel, fair-weather fans, lack of neighborliness, and networking / "what can you do for me" type of attitude which is why you hear lots of the "what do you do" and "where did you go to school" questions). Oh, and DC has one of the healthiest / fittest populations in the country, coupled with a rather large 20s and early 30s populace which can be good for dating if you can put with the amount that the attitude filters into the dating scene.

[Hikari616]

@Wsamon- Thank you, so very much for your in-tell on the DC area. Well, when it comes to weather I want a city that has all four seasons (my favorite seasons are fall and winter).

Thank you, I believe that too because nobody wants to live somewhere they don't love just for their work, or work somewhere they don't love.

I am a Penguin fan but I also like the Capitals and how they play. See, everything you mentioned sounds really fun to me, and it makes me want to go there even more!

For some reason I'm really attracted to DC, I think its mostly because of it because close to other major cities, beaches, mountains, and amusement parks etc. So if I want to get away for a little bit, I can. I love the scenery that DC has like their Japanese Cherry blossom trees, and I'm always wanted to see the festival they have. I do like to be around people I can actually have a conversation with. And since you mentioned the age population I am only 21 almost 22. But haven't gone to college yet but that is in the works. So that would be really good for me.

[pgm123]

Originally Posted by KStreetQB

Frommers just released an article on the top 10 park cities in the world two days ago, and Philly was on the list. Aside from the standard smattering of parks that every city has, Philly has Fairmount Park which takes up 10% of the city's total area, and some beautiful squares for which the surrounding neighborhoods are named.

For those who are curious, the full list was (in no order, I believe):
New York
Barcelona
London
Paris
Munich
Chicago
San Francisco
Melbourne
Tokyo
Philadelphia


You can check it out at http://www.frommers.com/slideshow/in...?group=335&p=1 to see the what, where and when.

[wsamon]

ugh, I hate winter and fall! lol (other than the leaves turning is very pretty). All the cities mentioned in this thread have all 4 seasons, so I wouldn't worry about that. DC has the shortest, mildest winter though with Boston having the biggest winter by far.

There are tons of colleges in the area (University of Maryland, Georgetown, George Washington, George Mason, Catholic University, and several others), so you'll fit right in there. There's lots of young professionals starting out their careers and trying to make a name for themselves too. Unfortunately, you may find things a bit rough dating wise until you're actually in college as there is a relatively high snob factor in this area (ref: the "where did you go to school" question).

The cherry blossoms are really pretty , but they don't last very long . The festival also annoys me because I always wind up having a flag football game in DC that Saturday and the traffic it causes is really frustrating lol

I've found that one of the hardest parts of living in this area is finding the time to enjoy everything that's around you. Many non-gov people around here work 50+ hours / week, including weekends, etc. and have commutes of an hour or more each way, so it can be difficult to arrange trips when you're always either working or tired from working. Most of the people I know fall into one of two categories: those that enjoy what's around them and won't be bothered to go anywhere (like the mountains / beach / theme parks) and those that travel non-stop for both work and fun and are rarely around to even grab a beer (I can be one of those people at times :S ).

Originally Posted by Hikari616

@Wsamon- Thank you, so very much for your in-tell on the DC area. Well, when it comes to weather I want a city that has all four seasons (my favorite seasons are fall and winter).

Thank you, I believe that too because nobody wants to live somewhere they don't love just for their work, or work somewhere they don't love.

I am a Penguin fan but I also like the Capitals and how they play. See, everything you mentioned sounds really fun to me, and it makes me want to go there even more!

For some reason I'm really attracted to DC, I think its mostly because of it because close to other major cities, beaches, mountains, and amusement parks etc. So if I want to get away for a little bit, I can. I love the scenery that DC has like their Japanese Cherry blossom trees, and I'm always wanted to see the festival they have. I do like to be around people I can actually have a conversation with. And since you mentioned the age population I am only 21 almost 22. But haven't gone to college yet but that is in the works. So that would be really good for me.