Before I moved here I was insistent we live in the city limits. It didn't take long for me to realize that aside from like one neighborhood we couldnt afford, there was no place in DC that didn't remind me of either a small town after a neutron bomb had been dropped on it or a suburb. The streets were deserted. The list serves were full of natives complaining that people from Maryland and Virginia drove down on 'their' streets.

Thinking we could move someplace I didn't hate quite as much, we moved to a close-in burb.

Reader. It's exactly the same.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from Capitol Hill. Throughout the country I’ve met people who say “oh, I’m from DC too” and I ask where and they say something like Fairfax.

It is incredibly annoying. They’re not the same.

They’re also not that different except that it’s easier for the Fairfax people to park in front of their home. Really, you DC people need to get over yourselves. DC is a tiny city with a million suburbs. People are going to say “dc” and mean it in the the broad sense because no one cares.

Where does it end? Centreville? Front Royal? Hagerstown?

Who cares if they’re geographically near: they’re not the same! It’s like being from Westchester and saying you’re from NYC. Uh, no you’re not.

You do, obviously.

I love it when these transplants wrap their whole identity on a zip code. I live in Arlington and am closer huge swaths of DC than are every single person in the Palisades.

I’m not a transplant, I am a native. I grew here, you flew here boo!

I'm not the PP, but as someone who did not fly here (grew up in PG just outside the city line and now live in Arlington). I feel like I am WAY more DC than the vast majority of folks who grew up in DC proper. And I am 1000% more DC than anyone who grew up west of 14th street. If go-go and Chuck Brown were not the soundtrack of your childhood, can you even claim native status? I'm from DC. PERIODT.

If you grew up her you would have know it was always east of 16th street that the jungle started. And yes go-go is not a prerequisite for membership.

Wow, super gross. PP, you’re not from DC. We don’t want you. You’re a loser in a gross cultural minority of one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok sure, keep proving my point. Everyone living in proper cities feels this way: Manhattan, London, Paris, San Francisco. No one is sending the memo to the burbs.

Bethesda isn’t DC; neither is McLean (I’ll allow Chain Bridge). Croydon isn’t London. Don’t get Parisians started on people pretending to be from Paris.

Manhattan is not a city. I lived there for many years and never answer the question "where are you from" with "I am from Manhattan". That would be as weird as saying "I am from near DC" or "I am from Great Falls". If the person wants to know more, which is often not the case, they say "where in NYC" or "where in DC". ONLY THEN you say "I live in Bethesda" or "I live in Manhattan". The person asking needs to show you that they actually care about those details before you start giving them your zip code.

How’s that going for ya? Lots of people caring about where you’re from in Bethesda? Want to discuss its rich history and culture? And how interesting your life must be?

My life happens to be very interesting, but not because of where I live (some of the time). Millions of mediocrities live in world famous cities, something you are clearly well acquainted with.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok sure, keep proving my point. Everyone living in proper cities feels this way: Manhattan, London, Paris, San Francisco. No one is sending the memo to the burbs.

Bethesda isn’t DC; neither is McLean (I’ll allow Chain Bridge). Croydon isn’t London. Don’t get Parisians started on people pretending to be from Paris.

Manhattan is not a city. I lived there for many years and never answer the question "where are you from" with "I am from Manhattan". That would be as weird as saying "I am from near DC" or "I am from Great Falls". If the person wants to know more, which is often not the case, they say "where in NYC" or "where in DC". ONLY THEN you say "I live in Bethesda" or "I live in Manhattan". The person asking needs to show you that they actually care about those details before you start giving them your zip code.

How’s that going for ya? Lots of people caring about where you’re from in Bethesda? Want to discuss its rich history and culture? And how interesting your life must be?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok sure, keep proving my point. Everyone living in proper cities feels this way: Manhattan, London, Paris, San Francisco. No one is sending the memo to the burbs.

Bethesda isn’t DC; neither is McLean (I’ll allow Chain Bridge). Croydon isn’t London. Don’t get Parisians started on people pretending to be from Paris.

Greater London is 600+ square miles. City of London is 1 square mile. I can assure you that people in greater London say they're from London.

You’re not from “Greater DC”. Greater DC is Barnaby Woods

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pick your lane. You complain about DC and decamp for the suburbs to escape it, but then won’t name the suburban “paradise” you moved to? Why not shout that cultured locale full of life from the rooftops?

Anyway, who cares, we can tell most of the time, you’re just embarrassing yourselves. It’s like claiming to be from Manhattan when you’re from Dumbo.

Because many people don't know where that is. Does that register with you?

Oh, it does. Which is why I don’t live in noknowville. And for many other reasons such as that why?!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok sure, keep proving my point. Everyone living in proper cities feels this way: Manhattan, London, Paris, San Francisco. No one is sending the memo to the burbs.

Bethesda isn’t DC; neither is McLean (I’ll allow Chain Bridge). Croydon isn’t London. Don’t get Parisians started on people pretending to be from Paris.

Greater London is 600+ square miles. City of London is 1 square mile. I can assure you that people in greater London say they're from London.

This is really fun. If you’re from DC but not from the National Mall you’re still from DC. If you’re from the suburbs you’re from the Burbs. Try harder.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok sure, keep proving my point. Everyone living in proper cities feels this way: Manhattan, London, Paris, San Francisco. No one is sending the memo to the burbs.

Bethesda isn’t DC; neither is McLean (I’ll allow Chain Bridge). Croydon isn’t London. Don’t get Parisians started on people pretending to be from Paris.

Manhattan is not a city. I lived there for many years and never answer the question "where are you from" with "I am from Manhattan". That would be as weird as saying "I am from near DC" or "I am from Great Falls". If the person wants to know more, which is often not the case, they say "where in NYC" or "where in DC". ONLY THEN you say "I live in Bethesda" or "I live in Manhattan". The person asking needs to show you that they actually care about those details before you start giving them your zip code.

Because you’re NOT from Manhattan. If you were you would. You can guess how I know.

Anonymous wrote:Ok sure, keep proving my point. Everyone living in proper cities feels this way: Manhattan, London, Paris, San Francisco. No one is sending the memo to the burbs.

Bethesda isn’t DC; neither is McLean (I’ll allow Chain Bridge). Croydon isn’t London. Don’t get Parisians started on people pretending to be from Paris.

Greater London is 600+ square miles. City of London is 1 square mile. I can assure you that people in greater London say they're from London.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok sure, keep proving my point. Everyone living in proper cities feels this way: Manhattan, London, Paris, San Francisco. No one is sending the memo to the burbs.

Bethesda isn’t DC; neither is McLean (I’ll allow Chain Bridge). Croydon isn’t London. Don’t get Parisians started on people pretending to be from Paris.

Manhattan is not a city. I lived there for many years and never answer the question "where are you from" with "I am from Manhattan". That would be as weird as saying "I am from near DC" or "I am from Great Falls". If the person wants to know more, which is often not the case, they say "where in NYC" or "where in DC". ONLY THEN you say "I live in Bethesda" or "I live in Manhattan". The person asking needs to show you that they actually care about those details before you start giving them your zip code.

This. Some of you need to brush up on social skills. This is not a contest, a resume, or a background check, it’s small talk.

And lol that anyone can “tell” whether you’re from DC or on the west side of Chain Bridge. Although based on some of these replies, maybe lacking social skills IS a DC thing.

Anonymous wrote:Pick your lane. You complain about DC and decamp for the suburbs to escape it, but then won’t name the suburban “paradise” you moved to? Why not shout that cultured locale full of life from the rooftops?

Anyway, who cares, we can tell most of the time, you’re just embarrassing yourselves. It’s like claiming to be from Manhattan when you’re from Dumbo.

Because many people don't know where that is. Does that register with you?

Anonymous wrote:Ok sure, keep proving my point. Everyone living in proper cities feels this way: Manhattan, London, Paris, San Francisco. No one is sending the memo to the burbs.

Bethesda isn’t DC; neither is McLean (I’ll allow Chain Bridge). Croydon isn’t London. Don’t get Parisians started on people pretending to be from Paris.

Manhattan is not a city. I lived there for many years and never answer the question "where are you from" with "I am from Manhattan". That would be as weird as saying "I am from near DC" or "I am from Great Falls". If the person wants to know more, which is often not the case, they say "where in NYC" or "where in DC". ONLY THEN you say "I live in Bethesda" or "I live in Manhattan". The person asking needs to show you that they actually care about those details before you start giving them your zip code.

Ok sure, keep proving my point. Everyone living in proper cities feels this way: Manhattan, London, Paris, San Francisco. No one is sending the memo to the burbs.

Bethesda isn’t DC; neither is McLean (I’ll allow Chain Bridge). Croydon isn’t London. Don’t get Parisians started on people pretending to be from Paris.

Anonymous wrote:This is so pretentious. I've lived in nine cities in three countries; nobody thinks anyone is glamorous being from DC!

Amen! People in other places think it's full of poorly-dressed, government boors (not untrue). Also, as soon as you cross the boundary from Arlington into the District, you're met with a cloud of pot smoke.

Anonymous wrote:Petula Dvorak has long been the most insipid and inane columnist on the Post’s staff so it’s only fitting she’d pen this column.

And, no, I don’t claim to be “from DC” while living in the burbs. It’s just that she’s the queen of banality. The Post used to have interesting columnists like Jeanne Marie Laskas and Jennifer Moses. Dvorak is just utterly predictable dreck.

Living in DC is her personality and she slams the suburbs as often as she can.