does anyone else hate it here? (tech jobs, good schools, college)
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Instead of deleting half of the posts here for being too personal and off topic, I'm going to say this: Get back on topic or the thread will be closed. Discussing other members is NOT "on topic".
Yac.
Hi you know you might have the interesting information that i want to know about living there in d.c. So far you have said nothing neg about the city. Which says this person is mature. Because we all know that there's good and bad in all cities . Mich where i live ain't that great. But i live here and there's certain things i don't like about it .hey but that's every where we have are problems just other cities. I will still moving to d.c. But tell me what 's this thing about the s.e,nw, sounds like i hearing about the southern states.
But tell me what 's this thing about the s.e,nw, sounds like i hearing about the southern states.
DC is divided into quadrants based off of where the Capitol building and National Mall are: NW, SW, NE, and SE. It's extremely over-generalized (and I think fairly antiquated) to do so, but a lot of people still base their perceptions of a neighborhood off of the quadrant. NE and SE have a reputation for being horrible, NW has a reputation for being nice, and I'm not sure about SW. That said, there are neighborhoods in NW that are far more dangerous than neighborhoods in SE or NE. DC has changed a lot in recent years, so it's much more accurate to look at particular neighborhoods (or even specific blocks in those neighborhoods) rather than the quadrant.
DC is divided into quadrants based off of where the Capitol building and National Mall are: NW, SW, NE, and SE. It's extremely over-generalized (and I think fairly antiquated) to do so, but a lot of people still base their perceptions of a neighborhood off of the quadrant. NE and SE have a reputation for being horrible, NW has a reputation for being nice, and I'm not sure about SW. That said, there are neighborhoods in NW that are far more dangerous than neighborhoods in SE or NE. DC has changed a lot in recent years, so it's much more accurate to look at particular neighborhoods (or even specific blocks in those neighborhoods) rather than the quadrant.
By way of example, Capitol Hill is one of DC's signature neighborhoods and most of what people consider Capitol Hill lies in NE or SE. Catholic University and the Brookland neighborhood is also in NE.
JEB, a couple of the things you said were downright inaccurate, and I'd appreciate it if you and some of the other "holier than thou" NoVA forum members would double-check your sources and references sometimes before making such bold statements. An example of this would be to imply that I recently stated that "Falls Church = Tijuana." I NEVER said that, and I take offense to people like you tarnishing my credibility and reputation with downright LIES, as this is not the first time you or others have tried to portray me as a racist in order to get your way. Show me where I made a remark towards Falls Church that compared it to Tijuana. Show me. Au contraire I recently said that I was in Falls Church for a concert at the State Theatre and really enjoyed my visit to the city. Some on the popular Restonian blog jokingly reference Tyson's Corner as "Tegucigalpa," but it has more to do with using satire to poke fun at our county's poor excuse of a downtown and NOTHING to do with flaring racial tensions.
Getting a taste of your own medicine? I seem to remember you accusing another poster on here of being a racist by rewording what he said, and then you denied doing it even after he provided solid evidence that you did. You seemed to think it was no big deal then, as I remember.
It's funny you defend the mass transit system here. Why is it that there is a train servicing DC commuters in far-flung places like Martinsburg, WV (MARC) yet there is no mass transit between Reston, one of DC's largest suburbs with a population of 65,000, and the Disrict? Anyone from Reston can take a Metrobus to the West Falls Church Metrorail station and then take the Orange Line into the city, but when the last bus back to Reston from West Falls Church stops running shortly after midnight, what sort of "nightlife" can you really enjoy in the District when you have to leave DC shortly after 11 PM to be sure you're back to West Falls Church in time to catch the bus?
Also, the traffic congestion here is much worse than most of the country. We have the nation's second-worst traffic congestion. If I leave my dwelling in Reston any later than 6:40 AM it's a pretty good guarantee I'll be miserable with a 45-minute bumper-to-bumper drive along Route 7 to my office, just seven miles away in McLean. To try to imply that this area's issues are not unique and that "everywhere" has the same infrastructural woes is woefully irresponsible on your behalf.
Before you say "that's your fault for living way out in the hell hole called NoVA" bear in mind my job was originally to be located in Herndon. It would have been miserable for me to have lived in the District and driven back-and-forth everyday. After being on the job for two weeks (and being in my Reston apartment for a month) I found out I was being transferred to McLean (slightly better commute from DC). Now it looks like it might be getting transferred again out near Dulles Airport. Let's not even touch upon the cost of housing here. Sure, DC is great if you're both 25, engaged, and each earning a $70,000 salary. What about those of us 22, single, and earning a $40,000 salary? Do we move into SE or NE DC and get shot at or live with a bunch of spoiled frat boys who booze it up every other night in a group house in NW? I already pay $1,135/month for rent on a 1-BR apartment in Reston ($1,350/month with utilites factored in), and I can barely afford that. I've eaten soup the past three nights for dinner. I cut back on groceries last week and will be doing so again tomorrow. The cost-of-living here makes all of those "good jobs" you all brag about here in DC worthless because the salaries being offered haven't kept pace with it. To be quite frank I also don't know what you get in return to justify this exorbitant cost-of-living. I just feel the "bang for your buck" factor is so much better in so many other cities. My salary wouldn't be poverty-level in Pittsburgh. On the contrary some people who earn less than I do there own their own homes at my age. Here I can barely afford a (crappy) 1-BR apartment in a bland suburb.
By the way, I DO agree with 95% of what that poster typed (although I couldn't care less that DC has horrible sports teams or "fashion sense"). The lack of a "real" winter is also a deal-breaker for many, including myself. I'd love to live in an area with four distinct seasons---not three. If DC doesn't get snow in the winter then that's one more strike against it in my eyes. That poster is also spot-on about the racial and socioeconomic segregation here.
NW = Rich, white, well-educated
SE/NE = (Generally speaking): Lower-middle-class or working poor, minority, high school educations.
Mont. Co. = "See NW"
P.G. Co. = "See SE/NE"
Fairfax Co. = "See NW"
I don't appreciate living in a region so visibly segregated by class and race. I think the reaction most in the "trendy" areas here have towards their counterparts in the "not-so-hot" areas is pretty well-exemplified in the "Arlington Rap" video on YouTube with the grimaced face being shown at the suggestion of taking the Green Line. I know many in DC are so full of themselves after being told how "progressive" and "ahead of the curve" they all are that they may wish to put the blinders on, but yes, racism/classism is alive and well here too, folks, just like in most every other city. I saw "hate" when I was in the city last Sunday and stumbled upon a massive anti-gay rally in the District near City Hall. DC isn't "light years ahead of the country" on many, many issues, and for that reason I'll still never understand why I'm paying near-NYC prices for housing and getting Omaha in return.
You can move to NYC. Perhaps you would get 50K salary there instead of 40K and will pay twice for a one bedroom apartment (of mediocre quality without parking BTW) in a vibrant urban area where it doesn't feel like Omaha. You will face a different kind of commute - overcrowded and dirty subway instead of a car or train stations where you have to queue in order to go down the escalator, and it may be even longer than 45 min depending on where you live.
You can move to Bay Area and try to make it in SF or nearby burbs for 50K. You will pay higher rent there as well. You can try to experience all the joys of BART commute that serves a small percentage of the city area and is worthless for the commuters along some of the busiest inter-suburban highways. Gridlock traffic? You betcha.
You can move to LA and experience the joys of famous traffic going in all directions at any time of the day and still pay through the nose for an apartment in the 'interesting' area unless you are ok living in the valley suburban hell. One way commutes over 1 hour long are pretty common there.
You can move to Seattle and rent a 1 bedroom for the same price in a very central and vibrant areas of the city - a discount in relation to DC, but I don't know how much you would get paid, job market isn't better there than in DC. There are no 4 seasons there either.
I am sorry for you, but this is a way of life and a reality for most recent college grads earning entry level salaries in most expensive metro areas. Your problems are not specific to DC as much as you want them to sound so. It is common to get angry at an area where you live because this is the perspective you have.
I was in Bay Area when I was your age, recently graduated with 40K salary, renting a studio in the burbs for 800/month back then in the 90s (not much discount from what you are paying now) stuck with the 45 min bumper to bumper commute between my burb and another burb where I worked. When my car broke down it took me 2 hours each way to commute by public trans because BART is not well designed for inter-suburban commute. It took me 2 hours to commute from SF to my work-burb that was 45 miles away from the city using public trans and it took me the same time to commute from my home-burb that was only 10 miles away and would take a 15 min drive in a car. If I went out it would only be for drinks, since I couldn't afford both - drinks and dinner. Sharing with roommates wasn't for me but that's the way my entry level co-workers could afford to live in more interesting places.
I think if you start with expectations that some of these complaints are only specific to DC area you may set yourself up for disappointment elsewhere. I've lived in SF, DC, Seattle, LA and Manhattan. No place is better than the other place when it comes to the most commonly mentioned complaints of the expensive big city life. Business offices spread out all over the place in the burbs, crazy traffic, high COL with respect to entry level salaries, young people forced to room together, families forced to move to outlying burbs to afford anything with family-friendly sq. footage and good schools, it's all common to all these areas. My advice would be to stay away from them all and move somewhere where you entry level salary will take you further (even if it's less) if this is your most important goal.
Really? Would you rather the NovA sub-forum be dominated by the "puppies here crap ice cream" well-to-do housewives crowd so that MORE people like me move here thinking the area has a good quality-of-life for young singles only to find out it was all a farce?
I'm not just going to "fall into rank." I'll continue to offer helpful advice and insight to those who request it. I've actually CHAMPIONED Reston in a few replies lately to people with children for its great recreational amenities, above-average public schools, etc., but I can't in good faith recommend it as being a good place to live for fellow young single professionals.
Remembering you from your anti-suburb posts I am quite surprised that after all that you chose to live in Reston. I would have bet you would have moved to a more urban area especially if you were already willing to leave you home state for other metro areas. I don't know how someone convinced you Reston of all places would be a good choice for a single professional in his early 20s. Not that everyone in his/her early 20s would be unhappy in Reston and it certainly has it's urban center with restaurants, entertainment options and condos, but for someone who is fed up with suburban living, Reston wouldn't be a place to recommend.
Once again if you're not going to verify your assertions with evidence of my blatant racism I'm going to report your posts. Show me where I said "Falls Church = Tijuana" recently. Show me where I coined the term "Herndondez" vs. the one or two replies many months ago where I typed that and said I "had heard other people use that name for Herndon..." Show me all of the other examples in which you are trying to tell others I'm a racist.
I'll stand by my "SUV/cul-de-sac/McMansion/Starbuck's/big-box-store/chain restaurant" comments because that IS the reality of the lifestyle for a GOOD CHUNK of Northern Virginia (save for Arlington/Alexandria), and there IS a disgusting level of materialism here. By "down-to-earth" I do NOT mean "white." I mean I want to live amongst people who don't all drive SUVs or luxury cars, brag about expensive foreign trips, shop at designer clothing stores, wear sunglasses at bars, have braggart-like bumper stickers about their children all over their minivans/SUVs, etc., etc. If you are going to put the blinders on and pretend these sorts of things don't exist in Fairfax/Loudoun Counties, then by all means prove me wrong.
I've bit my tongue for a while, but...
So why didn't you ever move into DC? Putting up a status of "city boy stuck in the suburbs" - well, there's a real city without McMansions or Applebees just down the road, where people can live without a car, there's public transportation, historic architecture that doesn't all look the same, things to do, more "out" gay people, more "life" as you wish it would be. Except for the fact you can't immediately buy a place all for your self. Well, people make sacrifices. But any suggestion that you move to DC was met with "I'd hate to bother the black folks." I'm sorry, but after scratching my head a while at this incongruity I got the impression JEB77 got.
So you're 42 and still sacrificing and making "adjustments" in order to try to live here? While you're perfectly fine and free to be doing this that's part of what irks me about this place. By your age you should be living VERY comfortably and be nearing the peak of your earning potential, and your years of hard work should have paid off by now. It's not "normal" for someone of your age to still be compromising in order to try to make the city work for you, nor is it "normal" for my supervisor, who is also around your age, to be relegated to living with her sister in an apartment in the suburbs, even though she earns twice what I do. Why do so many (pardon my language) willingly "bend over and take it" for decades when there are so many other cities that offer comparable amenities for a fraction of the cost-of-living with salaries that, while lower, are more often than not BETTER with the cost-of-living differential taken into consideration. I'm not necessarily citing ONLY Pittsburgh as an example either.
I am not sure what response you are expecting here. it seems like you would like to get encouragement from these forums to tell you to move elsewhere and agreeing with you that living here makes no sense. I think this is a decision you need to make on your own weighting all the pros and cons. Grass is always greener on the other side. Asking people whether it's ridiculous to live in an area where you have hardships A, B and C you may get different responses across the board as everyone has a different situation. Even if from some logical high level perspective what you are saying certainly makes sense it is not necessarily applicable to everybody. For example, your supervisor who makes 80K can easily have her own place, she just chooses not to, so it's her personal decision and definitely not an example for others to follow. Some people still work at low paying jobs in their 40s and 50s while others are millionaires in their 20s or 30s or occupy more executive level positions. There are families of 4 living in Manhattan in 1 bedroom apartments, who are we to tell them that they should get out and buy houses in the burbs?
I'll stand by my "SUV/cul-de-sac/McMansion/Starbuck's/big-box-store/chain restaurant" comments because that IS the reality of the lifestyle for a GOOD CHUNK of Northern Virginia (save for Arlington/Alexandria), and there IS a disgusting level of materialism here. By "down-to-earth" I do NOT mean "white." I mean I want to live amongst people who don't all drive SUVs or luxury cars, brag about expensive foreign trips, shop at designer clothing stores, wear sunglasses at bars, have braggart-like bumper stickers about their children all over their minivans/SUVs, etc., etc. If you are going to put the blinders on and pretend these sorts of things don't exist in Fairfax/Loudoun Counties, then by all means prove me wrong.
You just described pretty much every upper middle class suburb of any-city USA.
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