I Can't Take It Anymore... (fit in, transplants, townhouse)
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I had to have a big house so I moved way out in the suburbs. It was terrible. The commute made my life hell. I decided to give up a lot of room and a parking space to move into the city. It was the best decision of my life. I live on Capitol Hill, keep my car parked on the street, and commute by metro.
Is my house small. Absolutely. Can I drive a really nice car and park it on the street? No, I drive a Honda. It is a matter of priorities. If you have to have a showy house and a showy car, you have to pay the price of living in a much less showy zip code.
Keep in mind that there are plenty of options between small towns or stagnant cities and an aggravating place like DC. There are tons of medium to medium-large cities with easy commutes, great quality of life and culture, and well-paying jobs (that are even better paying once you consider purchasing power of the area!). For example, there's Charlotte and Raleigh NC, Nashville and Memphis TN, Minneapolis MN, Portland OR, Kansas City MO, Austin TX, and Salt Lake City UT. Any of those cities are vastly more preferable to megalopolises like DC, NY, Chicago, San Francisco, or LA--unless, of course, you have millions of dollars to spend. If you're a regular joe or jane, then try out these other places!
I understand. I suggest, depending on your profession, either moving back to TX (Austin) or Portland, OR. Madison WI is a great city; winters are cold with snow.
(This is going to be a mere rant, an effort to conduct some badly-needed venting. Feel free to disregard.)
I'm originally from Texas, yet I moved to the D.C. metro area six years ago to stake my career with the Federal government.
Now, I absolutely love my job. But when I first arrived in this area, I noticed that I immediately felt ill at-ease. The people seemed cold and harsh, incredibly rude and selfish, everything was expensive and crowded, and traffic was relentless.
I naively presumed that I merely had to give the area enough time, to "make the best of it", and I'd find myself comfortable enough to consider this place home.
It's been six years, seven in July...and that hasn't happened at all. In fact, I've only found myself hating this place more and more. I love, love the work I get to do for a living, but there's the unfortunate consequence that by its nature, one can only pursue it living in this god-forsaken place.
I'm sick of spending a minimum of two hours on the road everyday, primed like a feral cat to be wary of reckless, irresponsible drivers. I'm sick of having entire weekend plans torpedoed by accidents shutting down highway arteries at random intervals.
I'm sick of spending even more time trying to scratch out a parking space wherever I go that doesn't charge gouging prices and that isn't a marathon's-length away from my ultimate destination.
I'm sick of the rude, childish, horribly self-absorbed people that seem to make up the overwhelming majority of those who live here.
I'm sick of the snobbery and cliquishness and the subdued racism that seems to pervade every "decent" neighborhood, and the overwhelming crime and apathy that overwhelm the rest. It amazed me, a Southerner, just how racist some parts of this area can be.
I'm sick of having to commute long distances because I can't afford the astronomical prices of living closer to where I actually work (and go to school).
I'm sick of renting, I'm sick of rents going up every single year. Additionally, I'm sick of paying such exorbitant amounts of my income to rent what amounts to a tiny hovel when similar expenditures would've landed me a *mansion* back home.
Worst of all, I loathe the fact that after nearly a decade in my profession, that I'M NOWHERE NEAR BEING AT A POINT WHERE I MAKE ENOUGH MONEY TO AFFORD A HOUSE! I've lived here long enough to know that there's no way in hell I can actually afford a *house*, much less a condo that isn't roach-infested, for myself and my family for the modest $350,000 we could afford.
So, my dilemma is the fact that although I love my job and can hardly imagine myself doing anything else...that I just *despise* living here so effing much, it causes me such endless stress and anger that it's even beginning to affect my overall health.
I don't know what to do; on the one hand, I can't see myself going back to Texas to the civilian sector making the faceless rich even richer (I admit that sounds a little anti-free enterprise of me, but it's not at all what I mean), stuck in nowhere towns where no one can point to places like Iraq on a map (nor care to). On the other hand, well, I've made it pretty clear what it is about this place I don't like.
Where the hell is it possible to live like a human being *and* have a family here when you're not making over $150,000/yr? Every time I thought I'd found an answer, I turned out to be horribly wrong.
I think your problem is that you have been pushed into your horrible situation by the steering that happens all too often around here. There is almost a majority out there who would have you believe that the only way to shorten your commute AND get a nice home at or below $350k, is to live in a god-forsaken place. It is just not true.
To get what you want you would have to buck a very strong trend and look at Prince George's county. There are a number of places where you could have a 20 minute commute and own a single-family home with a nice yard. People will give you all sorts of prejudiced reasons why it is "better" to commute for 2 hours to a rental, but if you take an unbiased, honest look at the options you will find that you can actually take advantage of this common stupidity forcing so many to lower their standard of living out of fear.
This is not to say that if you could afford $600-800k to live in areas close to the city but with better reputations, that that wouldn't be preferable, but at the $350k level you have to look outside of the box. Do you really love your job enough to buck the trend or continue to endure your nightmare, or will you go back to Texas?
Yoadrian, coming from the fashion conscious Midwest mecca of Michigan, I'm sorry we let you down on the coolness factor. Maybe we can bring in some hicks and corn fields to make you feel better. Some of you people don't know cool if it hits you in the face on a daily basis. Just by equating the political side of DC with its level of coolness shows me that you people don't really know the city at all. On any given night in DC, you can find a live r&b, jazz or punk band. DC's nightlife scene kills Boston and Philly. Most people in the city don't even pay attention to the national perception that politics define the city. Let the outsiders looking in keep thinking that. Find someone who knows DC to show you the real city. BTW -DC's signature foods are the half smoke and chicken with mambo sauce.
Now you've done it! All these hinterlanders are going to be demanding to know what's in mambo sauce. Move here if you want to know. Buy a half-smoke from the guy on the sidewalk. While you're enjoying that, ask passers-by where the seediest-looking nearby Chinese carry-out is...
After reading all the postings here about DC, I am not sure that if I am able to stay in this town one more minute. I am stuck here because of my wonderful job for two years. I am already so sick of this place. Besides the high cost of living, the crimes and low moral standards, the people here are just incredibly awful. If you come here from somewhere else with no family and friends here, it is a deadly town because people are simply NOT interested in knowing you. They are rude, immoral and cheap. People in in New York are notorious for their rudeness as well. But if you get a chance to know them, you will find most of them have good hearts. People in DC are not only rude on the surface but they actually have brutal hearts. I am absolutely unable to understand what the reason is for this.
Some people suggest networking sites like meetup or meetin for newcomers who don't have a social network in place here already. I've been to one event from each (happy hour type) and don't think it's going to be a great way to meet people. It's frustrating, b/c I thought that would be a useful way to meet.
At first, I hated the fact that it was so hard to meet people at my gym. As times goes on, though, some people are warming up as we see each other so often. You could consider that if the gym has group fitness classes.
After reading all the postings here about DC, I am not sure that if I am able to stay in this town one more minute. I am stuck here because of my wonderful job for two years. I am already so sick of this place. Besides the high cost of living, the crimes and low moral standards, the people here are just incredibly awful. If you come here from somewhere else with no family and friends here, it is a deadly town because people are simply NOT interested in knowing you. They are rude, immoral and cheap. People in in New York are notorious for their rudeness as well. But if you get a chance to know them, you will find most of them have good hearts. People in DC are not only rude on the surface but they actually have brutal hearts. I am absolutely unable to understand what the reason is for this.
The whole NE has a level of unfriendliness to it.
Spare me the DC people are uniquely rude crap.
Why did you feel the need to rehash this thread after so many months?
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Get Outside of the Box
