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Are you too experiencing a different DC culture than the one everyone complains about?
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Anonymous
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I'm fairly new to DCUM, so maybe that's my issue - but I'm getting tired of reading that people hate DC because people are not friendly, no relationship with neighbors, long commutes, tiny unaffordable old houses, high stress and everyone only concerned with work. I guess I run in different circles or something. Yes all that can be true, but if you look a bit all that can be the opposite of true too. I've had so many visitors comment on how helpful and nice strangers are in DC and I find moat people to be generally agreeable. My husband and I are both Feds, so we make about $160k HHI, but we just bought a great (yes, not huge and yes, fairly old) 4 bedroom, 2 bath that was recently rennovated in what we think is a perfectly nice, safe neighborhood with great schools all the way through HS. We also own a condo in the city that has a renter who covers our mortgage. We max out 401ks, save for college, have only mortgage debt. We have an au pair who watches our two kids full-time. Both of us work max 45 hours per week. We're home for dinner every night. We purposely bought near the Metro and we both have easy 30-40 minute Metro rides to work.
Anyway, I just want to say that a nice, relaxed life is possible here - you don't have to choose between working constantly and scraping by. Has anyone else found this? |
Anonymous
No.
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Anonymous
| Yeah, but that's true for a lot of the things people complain about here. I have awesome friends, and am always making new ones, though many people will tell you it's "impossible" to make friends here. I eat VERY well, no matter how many people bitch about the dismal restaurant scene. I'm never bored on weekends, because I don't consider myself too good for the tourist meccas of the National Mall. |
Anonymous
| The people complaining are comparing their lifestyles here to the ones they experienced in less metropolitan parts of the country. They would look at your situation through different eyes. We each take away different impressions of the same events. |
Anonymous
| Oh, and to pile on to my previous post... I have never had someone tell me I don't "look like" my last name (though I don't-- it's my husband's). I have never had someone ask me when I'm having my next baby. I have never had someone no-show/ drop in unannounced/ disappear for hours/ bring a sibling for a playdate. |
Anonymous
| I don't experience all the craziness either OP. My neighborhood is friendly, the families in my kids' school don't seem hyper-competitive or rude, and it's all good. Ok, I give you that the traffic is awful, but I just chill out and sing along with the radio. I think the malcontents post because they are unhappy. Those of us who don't have much to complain about generally don't feel the need to get on DCUM and comment on how fine everything is! |
Anonymous
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17:02, you remind me of one of my favorite "protest" signs from the Jon Stewart rally:
"Actually, I'm pretty content." |
Anonymous
Ha! Great! |
Anonymous
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OP, I've never seen anyone who has 100% of these complaints. People post to complain about 1-2 of them. This is a discussion forum.
There's something a little smug about your post, more than a little smug actually, that is hard to take. |
Anonymous
Traffic is actually pretty light within DC. |
Anonymous
Are you kidding? -- rush hour in DC proper is atrocious! The worst part of my commute. |
Anonymous
| Not kidding, though I have enough transit alternatives that I rarely need to drive during rush hour. I do direct my taxi drivers fairly often, I guess. Anyway, if you're familiar with alternate routes, you can avoid a lot of bottle necks, even during rush hour. |
Anonymous
| I will concede that heading for bridges into Virginia can be trouble, but that's not really "DC" traffic. Routes coinciding with backed up VA traffic can usually be avoided, or at least the coincidences can be minimized. |
Anonymous
| yes, i am. i think it is because my life is more "local" than most other people's. i live, work, and my child attends school all in the same (urban) zip code. i work for a local, not a national organization. i commute around mostly on foot and on the bus and only occaionally on the metro. the farmer's market is a block away. supermarket is two blocks away. i can walk to target in 20 minutes. i think my neighborhood is pretty fantastic. though i wish my apartment were bigger. |
Anonymous
Here, here! Many of the common complaints apply only to the suburbs. |