Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My main issues are:

1. The weather - too hot and humid too much of the year. I like crisp weather, and I like cold weather.
2. The distance from the ocean or for that matter, any natural bodies of water.
3. The lack of character in the suburbs.

I'm not a hater. I just think DC is very expensive for what it is.

Sorry you are poor.

The assholes

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My main issues are:

1. The weather - too hot and humid too much of the year. I like crisp weather, and I like cold weather.
2. The distance from the ocean or for that matter, any natural bodies of water.
3. The lack of character in the suburbs.

I'm not a hater. I just think DC is very expensive for what it is.

I don't understand your #2 - what about the two rivers that go through the city and the Chesapeake Bay?

The rivers are not swimmable.

The Chesapeake Bay is nice, but is not an ocean or lake for beach purposes.

Cost of living
Traffic
Heat and humidity in the summer
Distance from the ocean/lakes
Transience of residents
Stress of figuring out schools for kids

I like a lot of things about living in DC, but it's far from ideal.

Anonymous wrote:I would love it if you could get to the beach or mountains in less than 3 hours. That is my single biggest complaint.

This summer has be lovely, but I will say that the summer of 2012, when it was like 104 on several days, nearly killed me.

Wait... what??? The chesepeake bay. There is plenty of beach in Southern MD that's only around 1.5 hours away. Delaware isn't terribly far.

And Shanandoah is beautiful and around a 1.5 hour drive as well. I actually think that's why DC is so amazing. You aren't far away from anything here.

I hate being honked at when I am waiting for a pedestrian to cross the street ( and there is a sign saying to stop for pedestrians who are in the crosswalks).

I am sometimes amazed by how pretty the city is on a day when the skies are blue and the sun is shining.

Overall, not a fan however.

High cost of living, long commute times (though I live and work in DC itself), and horrible summers. Just hard getting around in general due to horrible traffic and slowness of transit.

Of course there are upsides but the downsides are very significant.

Cost of living aside, it is WONDERFUL. However, cost of living really makes it pretty hard a lot of the time. If I could win the lottery, I would never leave

Too many douchebags

loved it when single and carefree (and carfree)

hate living here with kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Some of the architecture is nice, but there is nothing that truly soars or inspires. The federal buildings are mostly bland. Once you've seen the monuments and museums once, that is enough. And, of course, the centers of government in DC are largely failures. Obama is feckless, Congress is worthless, and the Supreme Court is not remotely in tune with the lives of average Americans.

I'm speechless.

Anonymous wrote:

+1. I love DC in the spring and fall, and we've had a couple of amazing winters, but, this year excepted, summer kills me. And traffic. I have two toddlers who hate to be in the car, and because getting anywhere at all from our inside-the-beltway home can take hours if there's an accident or even just a cop sitting by the road, we don't feel like we're able to take advantage of the best parts of the city. We're moving to New England next month. I'll miss the city greatly, but I won't miss the traffic (or, as an aside, the competitive parenting, competitive schooling, type A everything else).

So you don't live in DC?

I don't live in DC, either. I would like to live in DC, but we can't afford to live in DC the way we want to live, and so we live in the suburbs. And when we go to DC, we take transit.

I don't particularly like DC, and I love many cities around the world and in the US.

People don't like to admit it, but black-white relationships in DC are horrible. There is no middle class. The public schools are not good. The elitism of the NW residents has virtually no equal anywhere else in the US. The younger residents seem old before their time and just waiting to stop playing kickball and take up shuffleboard.

Some of the architecture is nice, but there is nothing that truly soars or inspires. The federal buildings are mostly bland. Once you've seen the monuments and museums once, that is enough. And, of course, the centers of government in DC are largely failures. Obama is feckless, Congress is worthless, and the Supreme Court is not remotely in tune with the lives of average Americans.

The noise and crowds are starting to wear on me. I can't walk 2 blocks from my home without hearing a jackhammer or seeing an ugly construction site. I went to a museum last week during the weekday to kill some time and it was wall to wall people. As I get older, I find I just want some peace and quiet.

While I agree with many of the pros OP listed, I also see some cons to the DC area (and it doesn't make me a hater). As far as cities go, I agree that DC has an amazing balance of urban landscape/cultural features with greenery and natural beauty.

You nailed the first con, which was weighted heavily for me: cost of living. I'm in my early 30's with a newborn, make a decent but not astronomical salary (~100K) and find the long term prospects raising a family in the DC area daunting. I'm not saying it can't be done (many do it), but it would include trade offs that I don't want to make, especially in terms of housing options and the accompanying commute. If money were no object, I'd buy a house in the close-in suburbs in a second, but that's not the case for my family.

Funny that you mention Charlotte, because that is exactly where we moved a few months ago. I'm making very similar money and bought a house a few miles outside of downtown Charlotte for 250K. My commute is 10 minutes door to door, I have a backyard and front porch, and overall happier quality of life (according to my personal goals/tastes).

I don't think COL can be understated, because that factor can really intertwine with others such as commute. If I looked for a 250K place around DC, I'd either be living in a shoe box or be commuting for hours each day (both reducing family time and wearing me down).

I can certainly see how a city like Charlotte wouldn't appeal to everyone (many would find it sleepier than DC, etc.) but it offers a family like mine opportunities to live the type of life we want, that aren't readily available in DC.

The transience. People come and go too much. For those of us who find it hard to connect, it's brutal.