Why do you live in the DC area?

[Anonymous]

Moved down to the area after college because it was the first place that offered me a full-time job. Stayed because I met my now-DH (who is from MoCo), and now we have kids and a mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I came to DC for Grad School but I always wanted to live in here. I met my husband here, kids were both delivered at Sibley Hospital.

I Love:
All of the friends we’ve made from all walks of life. Some have left and we’ve visited them (Europe, South America, NYC) but a lot have stayed. I love them all.

I love that I can see an art film, go to a museum, listen to a lecture at a University **any time**

I love that there are tons of different food options. I grew up in NY where I ate A LOT of amazing Italian food but I’ve had delicious food from all over the world here.

I love the trees and parks! DC is a tree city and I love it.

I love the job options. DH and I have found amazing careers here.

I love the salaries and COL: bear with me. NYC is my comparison and we live so well here. No way we could live like this in NYC.

I used to love the politics and worked in politics for a decade.

A lot of cities are filled with people who have always been there. I love that everyone here has a story about why they’re in DC.

I love living in a city other people love to visit.

What I don’t love:

July in DC
Rising crime

So you’re rich? Lol.

Not sure what makes you say that:

Friends=Free
University lectures= Free
Museums= Free
Amazing Vietnamese Food= Not $$$
Trees, Parks=Free
People with a story=Free
City people love to visit=Free

Yes, I do like the salaries here. I could NEVER have afforded to work in nonprofits and live in NYC. I’ve been able to do so in DC.

Some people will be miserable anywhere. Just sayin’

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think 90% of world's population would give their right arm to live a middle class life in world's most powerful country's capital.

Absolutely not. The people who did do that and left are testament enough.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in the rural midwest, have been in Nova 15 years.

There are so many more opportunities here than my hometown. Professional, cultural, athletic, recreational, you name it.

My kids are old enough now to understand how broad their horizons are here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved here because I was an Honors Program hire at DOJ out of law school.

I've never loved it. Still here 20 years later because I met my spouse, and spouse was born here, loves it here, all of their friends are here, and they are still at DOJ. I miss Chicago, which is where I spent a lot of time before law school. Spouse hates the cold, so that's not an option.

I do like that we have a house on the Shenandoah River that is only about 2 hours away, and the beach is also about 2 hours away from DC (although we never go). I do like that there is so much opportunity here work-wise.

Hate the high COL; how transient lots of people are and how that effects neighborhoods; the weird, pathetic, striving; the lack of culture (compared to other places I've lived anyway); how basic everyone is -- at least in this suburban hell I'm in at the moment.

So weird, but I know who you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moved down to the area after college because it was the first place that offered me a full-time job. Stayed because I met my now-DH (who is from MoCo), and now we have kids and a mortgage.

Same! But DH is from Arlington. My family isn’t close but I appreciate having his.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not for the hot women, I can tell you that.

Brought to you by a 5'9 white man in khakis and a fleece vest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hate it here. Can’t wait to move.

Mostly Type-A strivers and mean-spirited, cold people,

No sense of hometown / no city pride,

Transient (everyone leaves)

Summers are miserably hot,

Mosquitoes and ticks everywhere

Winters cold and gray with barely any snow,

Crumbling infrastructure,

Deteriorating school system

Skyrocketing crime

Incompetent local government

Whole area stinks of weed.

We are only here for our .gov jobs.

We could be friends in real life.

: - )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moved here for grad school, stayed for job opportunities. Have lived here for 20 years and am married with two kids. Have lived in DC itself the whole time (though spouse used to live in suburbs).

What I like and dislike changes with time. These are the major factors of satisfaction/dissatisfaction:

-- Stuff to Do. I have always felt DC punches above its weight in this department and still do. Smaller city but amazing museums, tons of festivals, great bands come through here. Food scene was pretty bad when I moved her but now really good, though as I've gotten older I go out to eat way less so this is much less important to me (same with bars).

-- Affordability. Used to be amazing, obviously much less so. Spouse and I are in fields where we'll never make a ton of money even at the director level, and we've been slowly (or maybe not so slowly) priced out of a lifestyle we once thought we could afford. We're probably going to cash out and move in a few years and this is the main reason why -- our jobs will be less tied to DC in the next few years and our money will go so much further elsewhere. It feels like we get poorer every year even though our incomes have steadily risen. Part of that is cost of kids, but most of it is general cost of living around here.

- Culture. Super uneven. We've never been part of the political/media complex in DC so I have limited interaction with that. I work in the arts and DH works in academia. I do think DC culture can be too Type A and competitive at times. I find this especially jarring in the art world where of course there is competition but there's a joylessness to it in DC that doesn't exist in other art communities I'm a part of. DH has a similar experience in academia -- it's a different vibe than you'd find in either a bigger city (where academics are considered middle class and fairly irrelevant) or a college town (where they are top of the heap). In DC, academics are close enough to policy-making that there is an aura of power, but they make no money in their actual jobs and don't have real power. So there's this weird focus on media presence, mainstream publishing, and consulting, that I think really wears down pure academics. Most people do not go into academia because they love the hustle. But we do like that people in DC tend to be, on average, well-educated and interested in the world. That's not always the case.

All in all, I have no regrets about the time we've spent in DC, but I feel it no longer really suits us. We could move into adjacent industries, boost our income, and "keep up" with costs here, but that would require us to become slightly different people with slightly different values, and it's just not what we envisioned for ourselves. It's time for us to move on.

This is my family in a nutshell. We left a few months ago for the same reasons you stated and loved it there until we didn’t. We absolutely love where we are now and are so glad we did it. We cashed out and ‘
financially, it worked to our advantage. I wish you luck and hope you get to make the move when the timing is right for your family.

I'm the PP and circling back on this thread. Just wanted to thank you for your response and I'm really glad to hear your move is going well. We definitely have some nerves about it, as we never thought we'd be relocating at this age. Plan to make the leap in 4 years when our oldest will be ready to start middle school, but will need to be flexible because of how academic hiring works (I'm hopeful I can find a job that is mostly remote before then, to ease the transition and give us more options). But thank you for the well wishes! We've liked our time in DC but it's definitely time to move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I came to DC for Grad School but I always wanted to live in here. I met my husband here, kids were both delivered at Sibley Hospital.

I Love:
All of the friends we’ve made from all walks of life. Some have left and we’ve visited them (Europe, South America, NYC) but a lot have stayed. I love them all.

I love that I can see an art film, go to a museum, listen to a lecture at a University **any time**

I love that there are tons of different food options. I grew up in NY where I ate A LOT of amazing Italian food but I’ve had delicious food from all over the world here.

I love the trees and parks! DC is a tree city and I love it.

I love the job options. DH and I have found amazing careers here.

I love the salaries and COL: bear with me. NYC is my comparison and we live so well here. No way we could live like this in NYC.

I used to love the politics and worked in politics for a decade.

A lot of cities are filled with people who have always been there. I love that everyone here has a story about why they’re in DC.

I love living in a city other people love to visit.

What I don’t love:

July in DC
Rising crime

So you’re rich? Lol.

Not sure what makes you say that:

Friends=Free
University lectures= Free
Museums= Free
Amazing Vietnamese Food= Not $$$
Trees, Parks=Free
People with a story=Free
City people love to visit=Free

Yes, I do like the salaries here. I could NEVER have afforded to work in nonprofits and live in NYC. I’ve been able to do so in DC.

Some people will be miserable anywhere. Just sayin’

I don't disagree with any of this and it's what I loved about DC in my 20s and early 30s. It can change if you have kids, and it can change as you get older and your priorities shift:

Decent schools = $$$ or a lot of luck, or both
Housing = $$$, especially if you need 3+ bedrooms, especially if you want to couple this with decent schools
Childcare = $$$
Kid activities = $$$

Groceries in DC are more expensive than other places, and when you have a family, you eat out less (and eating out with kids isn't free either). You don't host friends in the city as often because you are busy. Public transportation is mediocre and traffic is horrible, which costs you time.

DC is a great place to be young and single and employed. Also fantastic for DINKs, SINKs, and people whose kids are grown.

DC is a tough place to raise kids even though it has some natural advantages in this area (things to do with kids, the weather, lots of green space). It costs a lot to raise kids in this area and some fundamental aspects of having kids (school and childcare) are in weirdly short supply and you wind up expending a lot more energy obtaining them than people seem to in other places where they are either cheaper or more plentiful, or both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I came to DC for Grad School but I always wanted to live in here. I met my husband here, kids were both delivered at Sibley Hospital.

I Love:
All of the friends we’ve made from all walks of life. Some have left and we’ve visited them (Europe, South America, NYC) but a lot have stayed. I love them all.

I love that I can see an art film, go to a museum, listen to a lecture at a University **any time**

I love that there are tons of different food options. I grew up in NY where I ate A LOT of amazing Italian food but I’ve had delicious food from all over the world here.

I love the trees and parks! DC is a tree city and I love it.

I love the job options. DH and I have found amazing careers here.

I love the salaries and COL: bear with me. NYC is my comparison and we live so well here. No way we could live like this in NYC.

I used to love the politics and worked in politics for a decade.

A lot of cities are filled with people who have always been there. I love that everyone here has a story about why they’re in DC.

I love living in a city other people love to visit.

What I don’t love:

July in DC
Rising crime

So you’re rich? Lol.

Not sure what makes you say that:

Friends=Free
University lectures= Free
Museums= Free
Amazing Vietnamese Food= Not $$$
Trees, Parks=Free
People with a story=Free
City people love to visit=Free

Yes, I do like the salaries here. I could NEVER have afforded to work in nonprofits and live in NYC. I’ve been able to do so in DC.

Some people will be miserable anywhere. Just sayin’

I don't disagree with any of this and it's what I loved about DC in my 20s and early 30s. It can change if you have kids, and it can change as you get older and your priorities shift:

Decent schools = $$$ or a lot of luck, or both
Housing = $$$, especially if you need 3+ bedrooms, especially if you want to couple this with decent schools
Childcare = $$$
Kid activities = $$$

Groceries in DC are more expensive than other places, and when you have a family, you eat out less (and eating out with kids isn't free either). You don't host friends in the city as often because you are busy. Public transportation is mediocre and traffic is horrible, which costs you time.

DC is a great place to be young and single and employed. Also fantastic for DINKs, SINKs, and people whose kids are grown.

DC is a tough place to raise kids even though it has some natural advantages in this area (things to do with kids, the weather, lots of green space). It costs a lot to raise kids in this area and some fundamental aspects of having kids (school and childcare) are in weirdly short supply and you wind up expending a lot more energy obtaining them than people seem to in other places where they are either cheaper or more plentiful, or both.

+ a million, especially the last sentence. Everything related to kids is such a pain in the a$$ in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the rural midwest, have been in Nova 15 years.

There are so many more opportunities here than my hometown. Professional, cultural, athletic, recreational, you name it.

My kids are old enough now to understand how broad their horizons are here.

I think this is an interesting take. What I do not understand are DC locals who scream "then leave!", or have some strange notion that whomever is not from DC is from podunk.

Some people come to the DC area from really nice and desirable places, and I respect that and hear them out. Maybe they miss their family and lifelong friends, I would too. Sometimes people move somewhere for a job, and intend to only stay a short time.

I know some people who wish they could afford to move back to their home town, but they can't, so they stay here. It has nothing to do with me, so I do not take it personally. Simple.

[Anonymous]

My job. I kind of wish we'd planted elsewhere as the COL here is just so ridiculous and there are 5M people at anything neat. But what I do is much harder to find elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I moved here because I was an Honors Program hire at DOJ out of law school.

I've never loved it. Still here 20 years later because I met my spouse, and spouse was born here, loves it here, all of their friends are here, and they are still at DOJ. I miss Chicago, which is where I spent a lot of time before law school. Spouse hates the cold, so that's not an option.

I do like that we have a house on the Shenandoah River that is only about 2 hours away, and the beach is also about 2 hours away from DC (although we never go). I do like that there is so much opportunity here work-wise.

Hate the high COL; how transient lots of people are and how that effects neighborhoods; the weird, pathetic, striving; the lack of culture (compared to other places I've lived anyway); how basic everyone is -- at least in this suburban hell I'm in at the moment.

So weird, but I know who you are.

if this is true, you're a creep for even admitting this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hate it here. Can’t wait to move.

Mostly Type-A strivers and mean-spirited, cold people,

No sense of hometown / no city pride,

Transient (everyone leaves)

Summers are miserably hot,

Mosquitoes and ticks everywhere

Winters cold and gray with barely any snow,

Crumbling infrastructure,

Deteriorating school system

Skyrocketing crime

Incompetent local government

Whole area stinks of weed.

We are only here for our .gov jobs.

What does this have to do with the OP? The question was, why do you live here, not what do you hate about living here?