Lets Chat about DC

Honeychile, I'm with you on this.

DC seems to be filled with 3 types of people: young Mr. Smith style idealists who think they’re going to change the world for the better, the dead inside cynical remnants of people who used to be in the first group who’ve learned through bitter experience that they aren’t actually going to change the world in DC, and the sociopaths who go there to get power and money by making the world a worse place. It’s a soul crushing city. I lived there for a few months. Never again

And they no doubt find you a frivolous tiresome queen.

Takes all kinds OP

I grew up in DC and found the city wonderful, It's a manageable size and the gay scene is lively.

As a political town, there is significant turnover whenever administrations change but much of the city residents stay stable,

There is alot of silly oneupmanship with govt guys who talk about all the important work they are apparently doing.

O, DC, I love thy monuments and museums. And thy lively gay scene.

Plus with all the spies and military there’s always something sinister in the air.

True, R6, but lots of Marine ass, too.

Aside from the humidity, the weather isn't that bad. No hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, forest fires, heat domes, polar vortex blizzards, earthquakes, mudslides, etc.

Just the occasional severe thunderstorm and a few inches of snow during certain winters. I'd much rather live there than in any area that experiences those aforementioned natural disasters. Plus the property taxes in DC is quite low; almost as low as Delaware's.

Cunts. Cunts. Cunts.

So many people who were the first in their families to leave for university and internships and jobs in DC. Too many such people because they mistake the first non-profit or law firm or accounting firm or consulting agency or government contractor that would have them as the best place to be, the Metro the cleanest, the bars, the people, the best, tippity-top, the cream of the crop, top drawer, special.

It's the international epicenter of self-satisfaction, of patting oneself on the back, of small dreams fulfilled,of having risen to the middle of something, anything, adjacent to someone who knows someone who knows the chief of staff of some Senator. It's being so very fucking impossibly busy doing nothing anyone can put a finger on and no one would much miss if they had to do without.

It's a beautiful city in some ways, but not that beautiful, and certainly not that interesting. It is, in fact, boring as all fuck and twice as smug.

It's the only place I've known where whole conversations start --and end-- not with a "Hi..." but straight on in to a "What do you do?" and the hand extended so quickly will retract twice as fast and, without so much as a word, you will see the back of your assailant fast shrinking into the distance, hoping for better luck with the next victim, someone who knows someone who knows someone who is in a position to offer them so new job, a quarter ring higher than the last job.

No art schools. No goth kids. No art students. No dirty hippies. No credit card hippies fresh back from 3 years in Ibiza and India. No one who's been anywhere beyond a school trip or a semester in Lincoln, England. No one who has any interests outside talking about politics and watching pundits. No one who can talk about anything but the big annual conference that's coming up and the details are leaving them without time enough to shit. No one with any taste. No one who can tell a story not about the band camp of their job.

Museums are free, which is amazing!

Previous posters oblivious to the hundreds of thousands of Black folk there--of all classes, from elite to homeless--for cultural diversity. And many of them are Ethiopian-Americans.

Had a friend who lived there in the nineties. Nice place to visit. But if I stayed longer than three days, really would get on my nerves. The people are so unfriendly and overly status conscious.

This is all very interesting R9

Perhaps we can start with you telling me about your mother and her relationship to Washington, DC.

What do you think she would have made of the city?

I get all of the criticisms. Just remember that there are some normal people who grew up here and still live here.

R8 you must have missed the earthquake a few years ago that cracked the Washington Monument and the towers of the National Cathedral

They do, however, have an abundance of Ethiopian and Belgian restaurants.

I walked out into the road and knocked a bitch off her bike. Totally my fault because I was being a typical tourist but I laughed. She didn't think it was too funny, though.

R9 I’ve never read anything so dead on about DC in my life. It’s amazing to go out to a bar… And watch all the nerds dorks and geeks try to pick each other up. It’s like a room full of fat 3s and 4s staring at each other. Perhaps they ‘ll take each other to the nerd political prom. Yes you’re totally right there’s absolutely no creative class or goth kids.

The inner suburbs are just as bad. Bethesda is an insufferable bore. Talk about cunts. Arlington is douche bro govt/consultant nonsense.

The problem with dc is it attracts people who have the status hunger and aggression of an east coaster ( without the liberal live and let live ,do your own thing attitude) but all the conformity and small mindedness of a middle American ( without any of the warmth, community mindedness or down to earth mentality). It's like D.C. is a grotesque Mr Potato Head of a populace , with all the worst features of this country combined. Everyone there is so fucking uptight its depressing. They all act like they will explode into a fiery ball if they interact for a moment with anyone who can do nothing for them or to them.

R20 Unbelievable how much we think alike: Watching a 20 year old girl walk down the street in pearls and pantyhose is disturbing sight. Talk about uptight!

Yes, DC is full of Tracy Flicks (and their male equivalents), but the permanent residents make the city interesting and vibrant.

The permanent residents who work for the government or lobbyists, law firms and defense contractors?

I went there once, probably about 15 years ago, and I thought it was just really shabby. Maybe it was just an off period, but I was surprised how bad the lawns around the Monument, Smithsonian, etc. were.

The best thing I did was visit the Holocaust Museum. It's certainly nothing I would ever want to do again, but it something I will always remember and I'm glad I did it.

R23 Yes because they’re certainly aren’t artists, film makers etc. If you’re creative you get chased out of town.

grew up there. not a huge fan. if you aren't interested in the government or politics, it's a tough place to live. also not the safest city.

that being said, they have a really strong local theatre scene (or they DID before covid) and the kennedy center. there's a lot going on.

summers are hell. it's a swamp.

It sucks. But at least we have Doug Kammerer!

Both my husband and I were there nearly 30 years (late Carter to early Obama), and neither of us ever worked for the federal government. I loved my time there, but we grew tired of city life and now live in a rural animal with our dogs.

I found the city very livable, walkable/bike-able, and surprisingly cosmopolitan with many people with international experiences from living, family or work. I also relished the number of different cuisines, and miss the Adams Morgan Festival to eat my way around the world.

Yes, you could throw a rock in any direction, and you were bound to hit a lawyer. Sometimes, that is a good thing.

Yes, the Tracy Flicks (and their male counterparts) of the city were pretentious and annoying but easily identifiable. I'd snicker as I saw the Preening of the Suits, trying to out-rank each other at Happy Hour at JRs. Fortunately the tides of politics rolled out the flotsam every 4-8 years. Perhaps you just did not notice those of us who kept our heads down and continued to live and thrive in the city.

There’s absolutely no reason to live there unless you’re into politics.

DC is full of snobbish, obnoxious, cold, cliquish queens. They're positively insufferable.

Fascinating how many DLers lived in DC long enough to have such negative experiences with the people there.

R31 - why? DC has a number of gays and a lot of job opportunities. It’s not like DLers lived in Wichita long enough to have experiences with people. DC is a big city on the east coast.

In my youth I always found it very easy to get laid in DC (as a frequent visitor).

[quote] I'd snicker as I saw the Preening of the Suits, trying to out-rank each other at Happy Hour at JRs.

Last time I was there (2013) it looked like a bunch of losers. Not a suit in the bunch.

Lots of dickheads, but you find plenty of people who aren’t and make fun of them. People who grew up here lack a sense of humor about the place and often think they’re smarter and better educated than they really are. I lived here in the 90s and came back 15 years ago—it bothers me less than before and I had found I had missed it. One of the p,aces I’d lived I. Between was Atlanta. The greater areas are similar in size but ATL is such a nothing by comparison. Dc is great for theater and has a wide variety of music venues. It doesn’t have a twink culture like ATL.

R19: Why you’d expect any well off residential suburb like Bethesda, anywhere, not to to be a bore is beyond me.

I hate DC and the surrounding suburbs too. Just the nastiest people I have encountered in America

I live in DC and grew up in NoVA. I am a nerd, which is true to type, but I'm interested in arts, not wonky government stuff. I work for an education organization. I don't socialize with a lot of people because a lot of what is written above is true. However, there are a lot of people here who work for nonprofits, in healthcare, etc., and are not miserable people.

I'm sort of an anti-status person, turned off by elitism and people who live to a quite assets or to feel powerful. It's a curse that I've been here all my life but I never left because I'm close to my family.

I do agree that people in this city are generally unkind or potentially even cruel. People from NYC seem *so* gratuitously friendly to me. People in Paris seemed extremely friendly. The only place I've been where people are nastier than in DC was London.

R9, wtf are you talking about? Put down the bottle and go to bed. I'm sure you're semester internship in DC couldn't have been that bad.

[quote] The best thing I did was visit the Holocaust Museum.

For a group often unfairly maligned as money grubbers, why they chose to build their museum next door to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is hard for me to understand.

R37 " nastiest people I have encountered in America". The DMV area really is beyond cold and mean. I've heard people explain it by saying that all densely populated areas are like that but the DC area residents are their own unique breed of awful that I have not seen in places of similar size.

I love the architecture and certain neighborhoods like Kalorama. And it’s better than Atlanta. But there really is a striver mentality that infests everything. And uprightness. I’ll take NY, LA or SF over DC - especially since it’s become almost as expensive. There are worse places - but I think the vibe would kill my soul after a while.

I live in Kalorama. It's beautiful. It's still waaaaay too goddamned hot here in the summer, though.

Their movies are darker but inconsistent, unlike Marvel

I lived there while working for Discovery Channel then National Geographic Channel. No politics. Loved it.

R44 Who's their main superhero? Perhaps its Lobbyistman, who incapacitates his enemies by boring them into a stupor with his long monologues about the time he had lunch with Newt Gingrich.

R46 lmfao .. brilliant! Tell everybody you forgot to vote.. just to see their reaction🤣

It's 5:00 am, 81 degrees now with a high of 93 by noon today, a heat index of 107 and presently 78 percent humidity.

I really hate summers in this city. It's like living in the steam coming off a volcano.

Yes the summers are the worst— muggy and mosquito ridden!

R49 sounds awful

Mosquitoes don't swarm around me but the summers in this swamp are grotesque. I've been told by so many people from Florida, Georgia, Louisiana even how shocked they are that July and August feel much worse to them here even though it gets hotter there.

R51 Why do live there?

* you

R53 As I said above, because I am close to my family. My mother grew up here, my father moved here from NC after he got out of the Navy and my sister lives here.

My sister works in child protective services and I've always worked for nonprofits.

Neither of us fits in culturally. That happened because we are locals. The stereotypical DC person is an import from elsewhere whose career ambitions or educational ambitions brought them here.

I stayed because I am close with my family and my mother was ill for a long time and I wanted to be near. Now she is gone and my father is declining physically.

People choose where to live for different reasons.

At this point, I am middle aged and have always worked in a nonprofit sector that is largely a local industry. My job isn't as transferrable as various other skilled jobs are. So this is it, for better or worse.

I live in Kalorama and I like my neighborhood, and I like the people I like and the rest I avoid. I actually like Washington, D.C. as a city of neighborhoods apart from the ambitious assholes who move here for work. My only big gripes about living here are the climate and the lack of any interest in the arts and sciences. The culture (if you want to call it that) is interest in policy, history, law, technology, money making, building networks to exploit for personal gain, and acquiring things to show off. I do hate that. But it's been the environment around me all my life.

I actually really enjoyed DC. I work for the federal government but usually live overseas. The few months at a time I am in DC, I love it, bur perhaps I am spoiled because it is only ever a few months at a time.

I enjoy all the free events. At least once a week I would go to a free lecture at a museum or a free show at the Kennedy Center. And in a bar, I would sure as hell rather talk about politics and current events than sports. There may not be “creative” types, but if that is the trade I have to make to be free from annoying blue haired SJW types who think they are Artist then sign me up.

Plus lots of good Deaf dick.

R54 I respect your decision to stay there. I understand you want to be close to your family so why not live in Philly or New York? I’m sure there are non-profits there. The cities back east are so close to each other. You can live anywhere and jump on a train. We don’t have the luxury out west at least here in the Northwest.

Why would anyone want to move there? It’s one of the best job markets in the country. Simple.

R56 I wanted to live in NYC 20 years ago when I was young and full of energy. I'm grateful I didn't because I ended up extremely ill in my 30s and would have had to have come back here. Today, I can't think of almost anywhere I would less want to live in than NYC. One reason I don't fit in is that I am not competitive at all. I am very ambitious personally, but my ambitions are all personal—writing, painting, doing things to explore being alive. New York would kill me just from the stress of paying rent, but honestly, while I find almost everyone I've known from New York state and city to be friendly, they are also loud and see everything in life as angling to get ahead and that just is not even a little part of who I am. Yes, NYC is one of the US's arts centers, but that too is competitive and it's about self-branding to become a commodity, and that's not why I am interested in art.

I don't really know anything about Philadelphia. I've only been there twice. I've never even thought about it.

in DC, at the corner of MLK Drive & Malcolm X, there is a Popeyes Chicken stand. Last night, a gang shooting occurred there. You can’t make this shit up.

R58 Very well said. Again I respect your decision. Tons of people are moving out of Seattle now for the same reasons. The traffic and the stress are through the roof. Lots of folks are relocating to Tacoma and Olympia… and out of state.

R60 Agh, Seattle! I was there for work a few years ago and it waa so gorgeous...and I could not believe the real estate prices when I started looking them up. I had no idea Seattle real estate is practically as expensive as in NYC.

And the traffic. Good God. We were staying in a hotel on the water in downtown, and we boarded a coach to go to a dinner that our host told us was "20 minutes away." And then. We sat on the same street for over an hour, and this was in July and the coach's air conditioning was broken. It was sweltering. Three people got off in the middle of the street (traffic didn't move) and the rest of us who were too polite to flip out were in that bus for two hours. It was really insane.

DC traffic famously is among the worst in the country, but I blinked and did not notice that Seattle has become the new New York City.

I've live in DC for 27 years and I've never had a conversation with someone who opened with, "so what do you do for a living?"

Perhaps you just attract assholes.

MUCH more Interesting than at first sight. Even many of the suburbs are fun little towns (some are boring alphavilles). The more I experience of the city the more I like it. First rare subway system that is getting better

I think it depends what you do and who you associate with. I work for a national association that educates members and lobbies and it has a very who-knows-who culture—on one end of it, anyway. The people involved with government and those I've met in federal and state governmental agencies always immediately ask if you know X, Y or Z person to size up your value. If you don't have anything to offer connectionswise, they get out of there immediately. I worked with the enterainment industry for a decade and it was exactly the same scenario.

However, it doesn't apply universally at my organization or citywide. People who have jobs other than lobbying and comms do not think or operate this way. Member services people are into pop culture, may have mundane or nerdy interests like anyone anywhere. And they don't fraternize much with the lobbyists and find them boring and off putting.

People who work jobs that have nothing to do with government or money or power don't live in that culture. Healthcare workers, retail, personal services, hospitality—they generally do not care at all and would be a million times more impressed to see a minor TV celebrity than Nancy Pelosi or Jill Biden.

And it's not DC specific. As I said, I work for a national association that lobbies. We represent members throughout the country who lobby. Those people are not in DC, but they are the same type of personality types who live in such a way as to try to get what they want by getting as close as possible to people in power. I'd guess every state capital has its own mini-DC culture, but it's probably small and insular and so not visibile to people outside of it. And foreign national capitals attract the same types of people.

There’s a MlK drive in almost all cities of America it seems

Is there also a Malcolm X Avenue in every city? Not in mine.

Jean Harlow summed it up perfectly in "Dinner at Eight." When Wallace Beery says he wants to move to Washington, her response is: "I'm not movin' to that graveyard! I've seen them girlies....Pourin' tea for the DARs!" This was in 1933. Nothing has changed.

R54 I’m curious if there’s any change in a neighborhood when a former president moves in. Any noticeable changes since the Obamas moved there?

R68 LOL. No, not for me, because I live "on the other side of the track," by which I mean on the other side of Connecticut Avenue. Kalorama is a small district but it inlcudes, west of Connecticut Avenue, the Obamas' house, the forrmer Kushners' house, lots of ambassadors' residences, other fabulously wealthy people. On my side where I am, between Dupont, Adams Morgan and Woodley Park, are condo buildings that range from very expensive (several millions for a two or three bedroom) to relatively affordable (~$450 for a one bedroom). I rent one of the latter. I could afford to buy where I am and am considering it. But I sure as hell can't afford to live with the ambassadors and former president.

The French ambassador's residence just unveiled a to-scale miniature Lady Liberty that was just imported from France. It'll be in place here for 10 years.

While I am across the street from the ritzier part, the Obamas live only 0.4 miles from me.

I think it DID change the neighborhood when the Kushners moved in. They put up a big wall behind their house, and before the election this fall, almost every single house on their street had pro-Biden and anti-Trump signs in their yards. The neighbors were reportedly very bothered by the Kushners' presence. (They lived literally around the corner from the Obamas; since Jared and Ivanka refused to allow their secret service people to urinate in their bathrooms (really), they used a bathroom in the Obamas' house for a while before renting one from a neighbor.)

I want to know about all of the closeted Republicans. Not just politicians. Lobbyists, lawyers, etc. Why do they bother with families and being closeted when they know each other and that they're really gay?

DC is a great city to live in. I have been here for a very long time and before I lived in numerous other places.

It's small enough to be manageable. I have never encountered the nonsense some of these posters have. I have worked for the government, for non-profits, for private industry and for myself. In work situations there is inevitably discussion about your work and connections - that's what work gathering of any kind, including social events, are all about. Why is that made such a big deal of? If you can't handle that then avoid those situations. That happens everywhere, all over the world. Those who are most bothered by being asked about their lives or work are people who are young or somehow embarrassed by what they do. You learn how to deflect questions you don't want to answer.

I have found people in DC to be mostly friendly and helpful but it all depends on you and most people don't realize that. In the old days when everything was done in person and not online, I had to deal with the DMV every year for my car registration and less often for driver's license renewals. Except for one woman who was more interested in her private phone call I have not encountered this so called rudeness that has become some urban legend. People are polite and helpful if you are respectful to them. Try that.

I was at the jail once visiting a client and I was with a colleague visiting his client. He had all this trouble with the guards and getting his client but he was also short tempered and demanding and just had an obvious attitude. I don't come at people like that so I can avoid these issues and get my shit done. That goes for everything. You can be a drama queen looking for trouble or you can be cooperative and get what you need and want. I prefer to get what I want and get on with my business.

DC is also a clean city for the most part and pretty. Granted I live in a really nice neighborhood but I have been all over the city in every neighborhood, sometimes I think in every alley, and even the poorer ones have lovely aspects to them. There is a lot of green everywhere and that makes living a lot nicer.

It may not have the greatest arts community in the country but it is lively and thriving. Of course it's not NYC. But we have free fabulous museums and art galleries and that can spoil you when you go to other cities and they charge you for everything. Plus there are tons of free cultural events going on all year all over the place.

We have sports if you're into that, decent and navigable traffic in the city, good job and career opportunities, fairly progressive laws and very progressive courts. I like that we are the center of political life in the country even if it's not causes I agree with - except for that damn motorcycle veteran shit Memorial Days which I hated lol.

So to me DC is like a small city with lots of the amenities of a big city. I mean there are only so many restaurants you can visit and so many things you can do. I have friends and associates that run the gamut as far as professions go. There are assholes in every profession and there are great people as well. I don't surround myself with people based on anything other than whether I want to be around them or not. Decent, friendly, sometimes interesting, sometimes funny, there for you when you need them. That's the same all over the world.

Maybe my favorite times are when I am at Dupont Circle on a late Sunday afternoon in winter and there is almost no one there. It's amazing when you realize you can have this peace in the midst of a city where on another day or at another time the space would be jam packed.

I suspect someone here has personal issues and they think it's the fault of the city. That's a shame and probably short sighted.

I love DC.

Jake Tapper lives there. Yum 😋

[quote] $450 for a one bedroom

Yea, that's utter bullshit. Not even in poorer neighborhoods but sure as hell not where you described it. Maybe a room in a shared house.

Um, when the Kushners moved in nothing changed. Seriously wtf are you talking about? You're just trying to make drama and spin tales. I remember driving by their house a number of times and, well, nothing.

Nah it’s true. Even the uber driver here asks me what I do for a living.

R Mee too!

R74, so? Taxi drivers are inquisitive and full of gossip. I love them. It's how I first heard that William Casey was in the hospital and shit was coming down. I think this was around the time of Iran-Contra shit and testimony. I don't remember now. But the driver's brother was a doctor at Georgetown and clearly leaking confidential shit about his condition. LOL!

I heard people call it Ugly Hollywood:

[quote] Good god why would anyone move there? Painfully boring and dull.

You've never been there, OP. It sounds like you watched a show on the Smithsonian channel and decided to start a 0/10 thread. Go back and jerk off to Rob Lowe.

R69: You live in Adams Morgan. You might be near Kalorama Triangle Park or Kalorama Road but that doesn’t make it the Kalorama neighborhood. I used to live there. It’s Adams Morgan although some people have, in recent years, tried to call it Kalorama. I’m guessing it has something to do with the nearby Washington Heights Historic District which elevated parts of that end of Adams Morgan, between 18th and Columbia.

R73 oh girl he meant 450,000 for a one bedroom condo or co-op.

I would love to live in DC but I’m a political animal so…..

R79 OK...My building classifies it as Kalorama, the neighborhood signs classify it as Kalorama, I live off Kalorama Road, and real estate sites all classify it as Kalorama. But I don't really care what you want to call it. It's a beautiful area of the city. I live on the edge of Rock Creek Park right at the base of the Taft bridge with a view of the park below and I really wouldn't ask for a more satisfying neighborhood to live in, even if you want to call it Poopyville.

This map calls my neighborhood Kalorama Triangle, whereas the mega-mansion side is called Sheridan-Kalorama.

[quote] It may not have the greatest arts community in the country but it is lively and thriving. Of course it's not NYC. But we have free fabulous museums and art galleries and that can spoil you when you go to other cities and they charge you for everything.

Yes, there's a lot of accessible art and culture, but most of it is dead and pinned up on display in museums. What I mean by no arts is no arts culture—most people seem entirely uninterested in visual arts especially. There are some colorful neighborhood murals but there's no much in the way of a creative community. There is some theatre here and that has improved over the years.

R79 Here's a brochure, dear.

Thanks for that great historical brochure. But that's ancient history and the reality is that nobody calls that side of Connecticut Avenue Kalorama. It just isn't known as Kalorama. The only exception would be that expensive condo right before the bridge that faces Connecticut. I had many friends over the years in that area and I never cared for it. It's too close to troublesome street crime.

^^^ Meant to add except for realtors who also think Burleith or Glover Park is "North Georgetown". LOL!

R85 Thanks for demonstrating the weird snobbery of DC people that everyone is complaining about in this thread!

The neighborhood is literally called Kalorama. It just is, regardless of your associations with it. That's the name of it. There's a sign right outside my building on the street that says Kalorama Triangle. Every home listing calls it Kalorama.

And I have lived here for six years now and have never heard of any crimes around here.

But do carry on. This is fascinating.

R84 I lived in DuPont for four years in the 90s and we definitely called that section of Kalorama…Kalorama. Not down by the circle but up there around 25th street (I’m going by memory so don’t judge), yes. It eased into Adams Morgan but both sides of Connecticut were called Kalorama back then.

Has anyone seen the 2007 remake of Invasion of the body Snatchers with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig? It's set in Washington DC and I remember chuckling while watching it because the so called clues that the populace have been infected are blank cold expressions and bizarrely non human reactions. I remember thinking that with Washingtonians there would be no way to tell the difference!

I wasn't going to say anything, but then r87 joined in...

I lived in the 20009 zip code for 19 years. I thought of that neighborhood as the Kalorama Triangle section of Adams-Morgan. It's literally a triangle formed by Columbia Road / Connecticut Ave / Calvert Street (and a little of Rock Creek Park), as you see on the map.

Most people thought of it as Adams-Morgan, though. I had friends who lived on that part of Columbia Road, and they always told people they lived in Adams-Morgan. Friends who lived on Mintwood said they lived in A-M. I think of Kalorama as the section west of Connecticut Avenue, and Kalorama Triangle as something separate from that.

Kalorama Triangle and Sheridan-Kalorama make up the Kalorama Heights neighborhood.

Kalorama Triangle is also part of Adams Morgan.

[quote]Yes, you could throw a rock in any direction, and you were bound to hit a lawyer. Sometimes, that is a good thing.

Too bad it wasn't a boulder.

R40, you are impossibly ignorant. Kindly STFU.

r8, DC had a tornado just last week.

The cunts come out to defend their city...argumentive, nit-pickers, holier-than-thou about whether 2029 Connecticut Ave is properly in Kalorama or in Shantytown (you might think) Adams-Morgan.

Washington's museums are (mostly) free which is wonderful, and there are great public collections in DC, but there is very little sense of contemporary art from now -- not a group of contemporary artists from the 1960s. There's no liveliness to the private gallery scene, less edginess, nothing that's going to make anyone who has been to a few gallery openings scratch his head about. No group student shows because there are no art schools. Crafts is the only thing DC does well related to living visual artists. Some have mentioned theatre and I agree, there are excellent things on offer. It is a strength of DC.

There just isn't much good taste in DC. I have mentioned it on DL before but I've been in many homes that cost$2M, $4M, $6M in DC and the furniture and art are absolute shit. People care enough to have an address that impresses, but inside it's open edition posters of Matisse cut-outs with plastic frames and (inexplicably) matte UV filtering glass. The stairs are on half notch above Ikea. Individually it's slightly disappointing, collectively it's a massive WTF, DC? Bad taste would be a welcome relief from this safe mediocre stuff

There are of course nice people in DC, even nice (and some not so) nice people with contemporary art collections; and there are interesting houses filled with the lifetime accumulation of diplomatic assignments or other work around the world. There are interesting and sophisticated people there who are not doorknob wonkaholics, just too damned few if them, and likely to live part of the time elsewhere.

DC should be an interesting place, and indeed it is somewhat more so than when it was just government people, contractors, and lawyers, but it just isn't. The fault isn't the geography, it's the people who manage to be both too pleased with themselves and not a little bit prickly and defensive.

I lived in DC for much of my adult life, made the best of it, had good and interesting friends, knew people who cared about art (not just gift shop posters to fill a spot above a piece of furniture), went to lectures and knew the city like the back of my hand from Good Hope Road and Suitland Parkway to ambassadors residences and Foxhall Road. But Jesus what a fucking lot of work it was to try not to hate it too much. It's a most difficult to love city.

The blurry neighborhood borders thing is weird.

Are NYC neighborhoods this difficult to define? The East Village from the West Village, uptown from downtown, etc.?

[quote] And I have lived here for six years now and have never heard of any crimes around here.

Now I know you're full of shit.

R86: if you live in the Valley Vista, it’s definitely not Kalorama and it has the smallest apartments in the area.

There’s actually less address inflation than in the past. Glover Park doesn’t get tagged as Georgetown. The odd little neighborhoods N of Van Ness are no longer called Chevy Chase.

There is plenty of address inflation in the ‘burbs. Parts of Gaithersburg and Rockville along with nearby unincorporated areas are tagged North Potomac. North Bethesda is an actual subdivision on Old Georgetown Road between 270 and 495 but is now applied to the White Flint area into Rockville.

Is Rock Creek Park still the go to cruising area?

R96 I don't, but in a building near it.

You do seem to be really set on ranking everything according to various hierarchies, again demonstrating the point everyone's making about how hung up DC people are on status.

You guys are boring. Tell us about the hook-up scene in DC.

DC has the Corcoran art school which is now part of GW. Still, I don’t think DC ever had much of a distinctive art scene, even before WWII when regional art centers were more common. The area never had much in the way of artists colonies or the kind of businesses that let people are a living by doing commercial work like advertising, publication illustration, or industrial design. Galleries were pushed out of Georgetown and Dupont ages ago and many of them simply disappeared although a few do hold on in Georgetown and Dupont. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything remarkable in the way of crafts in DC. Despite having some glass studios nearby and, at one time, two first rate glass galleries, DC never really developed as a glass center. Music and theater do well here, though.

R100 Easy.. It’s a bunch of guys wearing a polo shirts and loafers standing looking at each other.

I'm a DC native, though I left there about 15 years ago. Here was the problem I found there--there were a whole bunch of transplants who imagined that living there required having a big attitude. Given that this particular population would shift with the change of administrations, meant that we were frequently inundated with a bunch of people who didn't know how to behave. We natives, all 200 or so of us, were just living our lives in our rather bland town, but we were surrounded by people that imagined being there was some sort of accomplishment.

I'll always love my home town; I knew a lot of great people there, both natives and people who moved there. But I can't appreciate those who think that living there confers some kind of special status.

[quote]Here was the problem I found there--there were a whole bunch of transplants who imagined that living there required having a big attitude.

I know this phenomenon well.

I heard they have good pupusas there.

Great French food too

I spent a week in DC R100 and hooked up with a lot of hot guys while I was there. My hotel room was like a revolving door. Not a dud in the bunch. But then again, I was new meat and didn't live there so it might be different for full time residents.

There are a decent number of gay men. Always been a place where I can find someone I’d be interested in. Not the friendliest and a little conservative superficially/socially (not politically). More exciting than Baltimore. Though I prefer Phillys absence of pretension, the guys aren’t as good looking.

“Alot” is not a word, R4.

R107, details! Who were they?

R138 true statement. Philly has no gay scene. Woodys is it. Baltimore died years ago. Gays have moved out. Straight guys in Philly are way hotter.

The only "creatives" I saw were rich bored white ladies working/owning galleries full of ugly pointless art.. often of landscapes and fruit bowls.

DC isn’t an art town. There are a lot of great museums and the city design was inspired by Paris. It’s a sports town and a theater town, and it’s (slowly) becoming a restaurant town. It’s not and is never going to be hipster central. It’s a preppy Mecca and a government center. The summer weather is gross. If that’s not your thing visit somewhere else.

The people in DC are unfriendly, that is true.

Do the local guys know who most of the (not so obvious) closeted Republicans are? I'm fascinated how that species copes.

I don't even understand why closeted Republicans are even tolerated.

[quote] The people in DC are unfriendly, that is true.

No, it is absolutely NOT true. I’ve lived here for over 30 years, and there are plenty of friendly people who live in and around DC. Are there jerks also? Of course, but they exist all over.

It’s a decent place for lunch if you must go, but you’ll want to be on a northbound Acela by late afternoon.

r118 You'll be attacked by the Asperger's geek khaki pant politico non profit mafia --- if you don't escape by 2pm LOL.

R117, I absolutely agree. I've been here for decades and I find DC to be very friendly and filled with people who are willing to help others. I've worked, gone to school and lived in every community this city has and it is full of all types of people.

I think some people have personality issues and look to blame others rather than doing a self-check.

Does one's profession determine if they're nice? I mean is it cliched to assume DC lawyers are assholes?

R121 No, but in my experiece Hill staffers are 90 percent mega-assholes.

To R33, it still is "easy" to get laid in Wash DC. I am there all the time for work! The new Tech companies in DC(smart men with no social skills) are great to FUCK. Lots of Yummy Grad students, Law school, The Military men(I cannot say enough about them, there is something about a MAN in Uniform). The TRASH is being forced out of DC(block by block).. There are still problems in DC(dtrump leftovers, Rethugicans, the poor-crime). You can have aGood Time in DC.

[quote] I mean is it cliched to assume DC lawyers are assholes?

Of course it is, you asshole.

^DC lawyer

I guess it's up to me to be the heretic in the room and proclaim that I'm perfectly at home with DC AND Marvel comics, TV programs and motion pictures. It doesn't have to be either/or folks.

“No goth kids. No art students. No dirty hippies. No credit card hippies fresh back from 3 years in Ibiza and India. No one who's been anywhere beyond a school trip or a semester in Lincoln, England. No one who has any interests outside talking about politics and watching pundits.”

Apologies, I don’t know the DL format for pasting quotes.

Among the kids who grow up in DC and it’s burbs there are a plethora of students who study abroad and/or study art. You’ll have to go out to the suburbs for goths or punks because the city kids are more sophisticated than that, just like in NY or any other big East Coast city. Dirty hippies are really more of a West Coast/Vermont/Colorado phenomenon. How many dirty hippies do you see in NYC or Boston or Philly? Even in Portland (I lived there for 5 years) most of the hippies are over 50. For the young it’s a passing phase. A credit card hippie isn’t really a hippie, you know?

And yes, the military men are divine.

R122 is correct. Most of those guys are smug assholes.

As a fat whore, I approve of the selection of cuisines. It may not be the best of anything (maybe Ethiopian in the US), but it certainly not the worst - except maybe BBQ.

There are a substantial plurality of assholes in town but there are actually a good number of decentish folks, but among the transplants and natives.

The cock is acceptable, but it is not LA or NY. A paper bag may be needed for the face. "Hollywood for the Ugly" is not a joke.

[quote]How many dirty hippies do you see in NYC or Boston or Philly?

uh, can I introduce you to Baltimore Ave in West Philadelphia?

R127: Rather than argue the typology of hippies or the post-goth sophistication of D.C. city kids studying in European universities (by which I assume you mean graduates from Holton-Arms, etc., and I should hope so for $50K a year), let me make my point more broadly:

Almost everyone everyone in DC belongs in DC. And by extension, there is very little room for those who do not fit the profile. It's like a child's first puzzle, those clunky wooden things with the few distinctly different shapes and colors that can only fit into their unique slots. Not only is there no room for art students, DC isn't very accommodating to anyone the least bit unconventional by local standards. There's no room for the homeless in DC, even; it seems they don't fit in either.

DC is a place that draws people who tick the right boxes, fit into the right slots. It's not a city that brims with the interaction of people of deeply different backgrounds and education and interests, where high and low interact, poor and rich, and ideas fly like sparks from the mix of the theatre crowd with the gallery crowd with the business world and the city hall crowd. No, instead it's a highly compressed middle mix of somewhat above average people a great many of them performing wholly interchangable jobs.

You'll never go to a party in DC and exclaim to yourself "Who is that odd bird?" or "I have to meet this guy!" Neither one of them will ever be at a party there.

dc is the only major city where I've seen people do the weirdo small town staring thing. Have you ever seen a movie set in a cliche little town and someone walks into a diner and everyone turns around? It's not normal eye contact or a casual once over it's a frozen almost predatory stare. I can't quite describe it only to say I haven't seen it in NYC/ S.F. / Houston or even smaller cities like Pittsburgh. DC residents either have this inappropriate stare or avoid any eye contact.

R132 Dead on my friend.

I've only been to DC a couple of times visiting family who were living there, so I can't assess for sure. However, I feel like despite exposure to people from all over the world (esp., those who work on the hill), they still manage to be provincial.

[quote]Good god why would anyone move there? Painfully boring and dull. Yes- they have museums.. so what? No one smiles. Ugly nerds everywhere. The gay scene? Haha.. Lame. Who dresses in Brooks Brothers to a bar?

Gross generalizations are the refuge of the ignorant. Thanks for revealing yourself, though I'm sure you don't realize you did so. NO ONE in D.C. smiles? REALLY? Asshole.

[quote]I've only been to DC a couple of times visiting family who were living there, so I can't assess for sure. However, I feel like despite exposure to people from all over the world (esp., those who work on the hill), they still manage to be provincial.

My comment above applies to you as well. You should have stopped with your first sentence. Pity that you felt it necessarily to go one and make a fool of yourself.

R132, you really know very little about DC. If you live here then you live a very limited life and I have to assume that's by choice.

The tents on the sidewalks as depicted in the picture are a very recent phenom. DC has a very robust program and lots of money dedicated to assist the homeless with transitional housing and other housing assistance. There will always be those who refuse housing assistance for whatever reasons. They are the ones who refuse to live by any rules and that often means a disregard for laws and respect for others. They shouldn't be allowed to just do whatever they want as an alternative. I support not allowing these tents to just exist wherever. As more people resume life as usual and are out and about these tents will be gone.

We live in a society and we need to assist those in need but with that comes a give and take.

Going into government work of any kind feels so 1954 to me. DC is like a throwback, a remnant, a bygone era.

Fucking hell, R137, don't be so obvious. If you try too very hard to prove my point that DC is overflowing with boring, humorless, take everything to its most literal extreme and then try to wonk your way out of it high school debate team summer camp sorts, then people will think that you are me trying to blow my own horn.

I don't live in DC but did for too many years. Thanks for confirming that some things remain that the place may change but the people remain the same.

I'm a district manager for Best Buy. I'm of no use to anyone in DC. Conversations stop.. dead.

r 139 - agreed this is the type that lives in DC. Haha - high school debate team. God this is so true.

Everyone that was picked on in high school moves to DC.

I've only been to DC once and liked it. DC seems to be a blend of the North and South Atlantic

R137, I have never seen even one tent on a sidewalk in DC, but plenty of cardboard homes when in NYC. I still love NYC, and I understand that every city comes with good and bad things. Haven't been to DC in the past 6 months since I work from home, but my partner goes in to work once a week, and he hasn't mentioned anything to me about that.

I would love to know in which perfect city the majority of the DC haters live?

R140 summarizes it perfectly. Not sure what other city is so blatant about job/career elitism. Most other places it’s respectable to do retail - because you can still be an interesting person who cares about life more than status.

R136, you sound like a dick.

Uh oh, poor R145 got dissed once by some effete shopper at the old Garfinckel's and is still butthurt.

Let it go. Just let it go. That will be better for your mental health.

[quote] I have never seen even one tent on a sidewalk in DC,

R144, they sprung up during the pandemic - maybe before. I have personally seen a number around 22d & K St NW (Washington Circle) on the sidewalks and around Dupont Circle. There are certainly more around town. I think during the pandemic they just let them alone - probably not enough personnel available to deal with them properly and people just weren't on the streets much.

R140, I had to laugh, because as much as I like DC, you're partially right. It all depends on the company you keep, of course, but what you do for a living is kind of important here. I do wonder if it's so much different from other people in snobby cities and circles? Personally, I have always liked people who are different and not boring, and I do have to admit that people in DC and the surrounding areas are more serious which comes with the territory when you know what most people do for a living here. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you know what to expect when you move to the area.

R149 Well - its a city of over - achieving nerds. They moved to DC to be around their own kind. Remember the kids you beat up in HS? Well - they moved to DC - a long with the student government dorks. They look down on anyone attractive, interesting/edgy or creative. You're in nerd territory - and they rule.

[quote] It all depends on the company you keep, of course, but what you do for a living is kind of important here.

You had a point in the first half of your sentence. I'm sure that what you do for a living is very important to SOME people in D.C., but not at all important to others. Just as what you do for a living is very important to SOME people in New York or L.A. or Chicago, but not at all important to others.

Some of you people are ridiculous.

The best part about DC is the black people. I could sit with them all day and listen to them make fun of white people in DC.

I've never lived in DC but it's hard to tell if this thread is just a couple of people who had a really awful experience in DC or a 100+ poster consensus.

Because I could 100% see DLers hating a city where being a flamboyant flames-from-space gay man with a career in retail or the arts is not very common.

Visiting, it always felt like being at a UVA or Georgetown frat party with lots of guys who eventually wanted to go to law school, one of those places like NY, Boston, LA, SF where everyone was from somewhere else.

r153 Equals boring and dull.

R153 Thing is, the nelliest guys I’ve ever met have been in DC - and I lived in NYC for 10 years.

I enjoyed my visits to DC and met some hot military men there.

But beyond a few central areas.....getting from point A to point B was enough to drive me to drink. Never been in any city where the distance between two points, as the bird flies, was so small, yet getting there was a nightmare.

Most of the people who are assholes are from other U.S towns - just like in NY. The natives are more laid back and most do not work on Capitol Hill.

Not a native but I grew up in the DMV and returned when my mother’s health declined. The power and status-absorbed clowns are but a slice of the population. The DMV is very diverse with not only Black communities, but significant Ethiopian, Salvadorian and Vietnamese communities as well.

I’ve only once been to a party where someone walked away from me when they found out I worked in an unconventional job. But I don’t hang out with those kind of people.

The best people I’ve met in the DC area are in the military - courteous, well-traveled, most have a good sense of humor and they’ve seen everything.

R132, Please tell me of this city in the U.S. where the poor mix with the rich - outside of NY or LA where that interaction is, let’s not kid ourselves, transactional. A city where it’s not just artists, musicians and actors hobnobbing with producers and patrons, each party hoping to gain something from the other.

I think it’s an unusually unfriendly city, and I’m a native. You can carve out your little group of friends and enjoy yourself, but you’ll never be out and strike up a great conversation with strangers, Its just a very uptight place. Everyone is on the defensive about themselves and their spot in the world instead of enjoying life.

[quote] Everyone is on the defensive about themselves and their spot in the world instead of enjoying life.

Do you think that comes from the fact that few people are natives like you? I was always told DC didn't have natives, that everyone is from elsewhere.

I visited once, had a great time.

[quote]I think it’s an unusually unfriendly city, and I’m a native. You can carve out your little group of friends and enjoy yourself, but you’ll never be out and strike up a great conversation with strangers, Its just a very uptight place. Everyone is on the defensive about themselves and their spot in the world instead of enjoying life.

Another asshole making ridiculous generalizations. As if everyone, or even the vast majority, of people in an entire city would have a particular personality or would tend to behave in a certain way. Did it ever occur to you that perhaps you clearly project that you have an extremely off-putting personality, and that's why you are unable to strike up a conversation with strangers, and why they avoid doing so with you?

[R162] Not really! I’m pretty gregarious and make friends easily, it’s something many others observe as well, so not just me. There is an aloofness and it may be because most people here are transients and just passing through. No one on my block talks to each other and I’ve tried having neighbors over and hardly any will come. People avoid each other, they don’t even sit outside. I think New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia are very different. More neighborhoods with local bars, diners, coffee shops.

R163 I agree with you 100%. All the cities you mentioned are 100% different than DC. They are towns that have hundreds if not thousands of different types of jobs and industries. Great neighborhoods full of all sorts of people blue-collar white collar etc. People flock to New York yes but it’s still has a better feel than DC. Baltimore and Philadelphia are very family oriented a lot of people stay and raise families: DC is a one company town… Most industries feed into the government somehow. People are just passing through so they ignore pretty much everybody in their path which makes their neighborhoods incredibly boring, dull and quiet. People move there for to satisfy sone twisted politico agenda. Black people are pretty much ignored except for when some nerd political asshole wants to show them that they care about the blacks to advance their political agenda.

I dare anyone to walk into a bar on Capitol Hill…& say I don’t vote, I don’t give a shit about politics, I didn’t graduate from college, I drive a taxi etc. Sure some nonprofit geek will come up to me and act like they care. They’ll probably take a picture of me for the brochure so their donors will give them more money. Then they’ll toss me in the river with the rest of the creative people

The straw that broke the camels back for me was seeing two fat fuck nerds with bowties on talking about Rutherford B Hayes… Our former president.. Debating on who they would replacing in his cabinet Fucking someone hang me outside in the tree .. motherfucking nerds

R166 😂😂😂

Love DC great place to go to college

[quote] but you’ll never be out and strike up a great conversation with strangers, Its just a very uptight place

R159, sorry but more of your generalizations just reflect on you and your ability to socialize. I strike up conversations with people all the time. In many different situations and locations around town. Maybe I'm just a friendlier and more open person. I sure as hell don't go around assuming sweeping generalizations about whole city wide populations.

You go looking for unfriendly and you'll find unfriendly.

You got issues. Work on them.

While R162 and R169 seem to think that they are they are the friendliest motherfuckers in DC, I have doubts.

[quote] I dare anyone to walk into a bar in Los Feliz…& say I don’t watch TV or read books, I don’t give a shit about plays or movies, I didn’t graduate from film school, I drive an 18-wheeler etc. Sure some documentary filmmaker geek will come up to me and act like they care. They’ll probably take a picture of me for the brochure so their donors will give them more money. Then they’ll toss me in the river with the rest of the non-creative people

[quote] I dare anyone to walk into a bar down on Wall Stree…& say I don’t invest, I don’t give a shit about finance, I didn’t graduate from college, I drive a taxi etc. Sure some nonprofit geek girlfriend of one of the bankers will come up to me and act like they care. They’ll probably take a picture of me for the brochure so their donors will give them more money. Then they’ll toss me in the river with the rest of the poor people

See how that works?

Most of the posts on this thread are from a guy who says he works as a general manager at Best Buy.

I can understand why DC would suck for him if he keeps trying to hang out in places where political geeks hang out.

I went to Princeton. I could easily see the debate about Rutherford B. Hayes's cabinet happening among a number of my classmates late at night. I would have found it amusing, not a reason to shoot myself and far more interesting than a debate over two Real Housewives from Season 3.

I've never lived in DC and rarely stay overnight if I have to go there for work.

But I know/have met a number of people who live there and most of them seem to love it.

That may be because they are political nerds or like political nerds, but mostly it means they found other people there who share their interest.

With several million people in the metro area, i suspect you can find whatever type of person you are looking for.

I'm from the DC area and I live in DC, and I am not a political or TV news junkie or motivated by money and power—so I tend to feel alienated.

But I'm more culturally DC than I thought if it's unusual to think someone sauntering into a bar and announcing "I DON'T VOTE!" should be received as normal and unremarkable. I can imagine that happening only in places like Montana, where not voting might be seen as a virtue by some twisted logic, but otherwise, I would think most people would be pretty turned off by such a boast.

The women dress awfully. Bodycon dresses with blazers, twinsets and pearls.

R151, can you read? I said that it’s probably not different from other snobby cities or circles, and that’s what I was referring to. If you don’t surround yourself with snobby people, it won’t matter what you do for a living.

I think it’s stupid to have posters from Bumfuck, AL shitting on DC, but it’s equally stupid to pretend that DC is 100% perfect and elitism doesn’t exist. There are good and bag things about any place on earth, and DC is no exception. But I do find it odd that some posters hated it so much after stepping off the Greyhound bus.

If R166 wants to be taken seriously, he should consider expanding his vocabulary

It’s the Panera of US cities.

I agree that DC isn’t the most friendly but what major city is? Chicago. NY. NO.

Not LA not SF not Boston.

R169 needs to change her bloody tampon.

[quote]DC is a one company town… Most industries feed into the government somehow.

Incorrect.

[quote]People are just passing through so they ignore pretty much everybody in their path which makes their neighborhoods incredibly boring, dull and quiet. People move there for to satisfy some twisted politico agenda.

Do you actually believe this nonsense you're typing, or are you just trying to stir up shit?

[quote] I agree that DC isn’t the most friendly but what major city is? Chicago. NY. NO.

Chicago isn't as mean as it is lazy - and somewhat racist.

The gays there just can NOT be bothered with you if you live more than a few el stops away. Like I said, LAZY.

R176: That would be Atlanta.

OK, maybe it’s the Applebee’s of US cities then.

OP just described my impressions of DC to a tee. Please someone tell me he is wrong.

OP is wrong. I hope that Jesus has killed him by now, as per his prayer, so we don't have to listen to anymore of his nonsense :-)

[quote]Jesus kill me now.

Address?

My memory is that close in neighborhoods tend to be fairly friendly and fairly homogeneous (perhaps for that reason).

Capitol Hill neighbors meet at Eastern Market and mingle over for outdoor cocktails (often at Open Houses). DuPont Circle types tend to congregate in restaurants, a few bars (and on Grindr). Georgetown denizens (generally older) meet at “charity” functions and regularly entertain each other catered events in homes.

Each neighborhood is a different “type.” But DC’ers do smile a lot, tend to skew mildly liberal, willingly accept those who vary somewhat from that orientation, but mostly just tolerate the four year rotating political crazies.

Beyond neighborhoods, mixing occurs at work and in passing at sports events.

Seems a lot of these observations are from people who are very into The Gay Scene and based on their interactions with similar Gay Scenesters.

R182: that would be Indianapolis or Columbus, Ohio.

K -12 Washingtonian here. When I had foot surgery in September, my neighbors brought me bagels, cookies, reading materials, etc. They asked if I needed groceries or sundries.

When my mother died they wrote me notes and left plants. I didn't tell them she died, they saw her obit in the WP.

To be fair, I currently live in a building across the river from DC, not DC proper. Before I was a fat whore, I could bike to DC in 20 minutes. I am likely the lowest-paid, least-connected person in my building but I still get invited to events and am treated like a human being.

I agree DC is a generally unfriendly city, but there are many friendly people, particularly the natives or long-time residents. Not everyone works in government or politics and the city is quite diverse.

When I haven't lived here I've always looked forward to visiting.

When I was growing up, DC had more in terms of a counter-culture arts/music scene. That was all but gone by the late nineties when big money moved in and started buying up all of the real estate that housed venues such as the WPA and properties in/near Chinatown.

A family member buys a lot of art. The artists he finds live in places like Minnesota, New Mexico, Western PA. Most working artists are priced out of the US metropoli.

^ metropolises

[quote]I agree DC is a generally unfriendly city, but there are many friendly people, particularly the natives or long-time residents.

Sounds like you're saying that the unfriendly people tend to be those just passing through, or at least, not there for the long term. But any big city is going to have a considerable percentage of people like that, don't you think?

DC is the Ruth’s Chris of American cities.

Of course the District is pretentious and ultra-conformist and status obsessed—it's the gayest place in the USA!

Generalizations! Generalizations! Generalizations!

R195 Most of this is based in truth and observation

R196, I was actually just mocking the poster who keeps responding with that word.

169 is typical of what passes for charm in DC.

Also from R196, who is desperately unhappy, and very much invested in getting other people to hate DC as much as he does.

[italic] Lets Chat about DC

Good god why would anyone move there? Painfully boring and dull. Yes- they have museums.. so what? No one smiles. Ugly nerds everywhere. The gay scene? Haha.. Lame. Who dresses in Brooks Brothers to a bar? I had to listen to a guy ramble on and on about his prestigious government contracting job. Jesus kill me now.

R9 I’ve never read anything so dead on about DC in my life. It’s amazing to go out to a bar… And watch all the nerds dorks and geeks try to pick each other up. It’s like a room full of fat 3s and 4s staring at each other. Perhaps they ‘ll take each other to the nerd political prom. Yes you’re totally right there’s absolutely no creative class or goth kids. Lets Chat about DC

The inner suburbs are just as bad. Bethesda is an insufferable bore. Talk about cunts. Arlington is douche bro govt/consultant nonsense.

R20 Unbelievable how much we think alike: Watching a 20 year old girl walk down the street in pearls and pantyhose is disturbing sight. Talk about uptight!

R23 Yes because they’re certainly aren’t artists, film makers etc. If you’re creative you get chased out of town.

There’s absolutely no reason to live there unless you’re into politics.

R58 Very well said. Again I respect your decision. Tons of people are moving out of Seattle now for the same reasons. The traffic and the stress are through the roof. Lots of folks are relocating to Tacoma and Olympia… and out of state.

I heard people call it Ugly Hollywood:

R100 Easy.. It’s a bunch of guys wearing a polo shirts and loafers standing looking at each other.

r118 You'll be attacked by the Asperger's geek khaki pant politico non profit mafia --- if you don't escape by 2pm LOL.

[bold]I'm a district manager for Best Buy. I'm of no use to anyone in DC. Conversations stop.. dead.[/bold]

r 139 - agreed this is the type that lives in DC. Haha - high school debate team. God this is so true.

Everyone that was picked on in high school moves to DC.

R149 Well - its a city of over - achieving nerds. They moved to DC to be around their own kind. Remember the kids you beat up in HS? Well - they moved to DC - a long with the student government dorks. They look down on anyone attractive, interesting/edgy or creative. You're in nerd territory - and they rule.

The best part about DC is the black people. I could sit with them all day and listen to them make fun of white people in DC.

R163 I agree with you 100%. All the cities you mentioned are 100% different than DC. They are towns that have hundreds if not thousands of different types of jobs and industries. Great neighborhoods full of all sorts of people blue-collar white collar etc. People flock to New York yes but it’s still has a better feel than DC. Baltimore and Philadelphia are very family oriented a lot of people stay and raise families: DC is a one company town… Most industries feed into the government somehow. People are just passing through so they ignore pretty much everybody in their path which makes their neighborhoods incredibly boring, dull and quiet. People move there for to satisfy sone twisted politico agenda. Black people are pretty much ignored except for when some nerd political asshole wants to show them that they care about the blacks to advance their political agenda.

I dare anyone to walk into a bar on Capitol Hill…& say I don’t vote, I don’t give a shit about politics, I didn’t graduate from college, I drive a taxi etc. Sure some nonprofit geek will come up to me and act like they care. They’ll probably take a picture of me for the brochure so their donors will give them more money. Then they’ll toss me in the river with the rest of the creative people

The straw that broke the camels back for me was seeing two fat fuck nerds with bowties on talking about Rutherford B Hayes… Our former president.. Debating on who they would replacing in his cabinet Fucking someone hang me outside in the tree .. motherfucking nerds

OP = MARVEL shill

[quote]I was actually just mocking the poster who keeps responding with that word.

The idiots who insist on making gross generalizations about the behavior and personality of all the people (or the majority of the people) in a huge city are the ones who deserve to be mocked.

R201, but you don't have to feel compelled to dissect every single comment. If someone doesn't like DC, that's their view. Everyone has different experiences. You can't force someone to feel the way you do.

And DCers have ruined Rehoboth Beach for me.

[quote]You don't have to feel compelled to dissect every single comment. If someone doesn't like DC, that's their view. Everyone has different experiences.

Yes, everyone has different experiences -- which is exactly why gross generalizations are so stupid and so terribly annoying. Is that clear to you now?

R204 is so terribly, terribly annoyed.

It's the first city in which I saw human feces on the sidewalk. That aside, there was something fun to do every night I was there visiting.

Gross generalizations are what DL traffics in. Usually whatever city that’s up for discussion is written off as a dump, so DC gets off easy just being bland.

Ha, R207. And yet someone has still managed to be offended by that description.

[quote]And yet someone has still managed to be offended by that description.

I'm not so much offended by the specific description of D.C.. I hate ALL gross generalizations because, as I said above, they are the province of ignorant people whose brains are so ill-developed that they can only think that way and are unable to see complexities in anything.

I will make a generaliztion, R209, that you have done something few men are fortunate to do. You have found the very best place for you. May your prickly happiness continue there for many years to come.

R210, if you're referring to DataLounge as "the very very place" for me -- well, you are here too, so I don't get your point. If you're referring to D.C., I do not live there, and though I have visited many times, I have not been there in more than two years due to COVID. For whatever that's worth to you, and not that I care in the slightest.

Butt ugly politicos

Im a permanent resident many of the things being said are true but get a dog …dog people are friendly and convivial. Many people even say hello on the street or at least smile at you and your pet.

I technically work in DC, but since I now telework full time I moved to a more affordable city an hour away.

I love, love, love DC and am so glad I moved there in my mid-20s. There’s so much to see and do, and it’s so easy to make friends from all over the place. There were weeks I’d have something to do every night if I wanted (partying, cultural activities, volunteering). Also, the National Mall is one of my favorite places in the world, between the monuments, museums, and awe-struck crowds…whenever I would go there to run or bike at couldn’t believe I actually lived there.

In my mind, the only negatives about DC are:

1. Very few people come there to stay. Every 6 months a friend is leaving or moving to one of the outer suburbs.

2. Your job defines you. Not only will people ask you what you do (or where you went to school) upon meeting, but it can be hard to have a conversation where people don’t go on and on about their job.

3. The gay scene is very cliquey. I never found people to be mean or hostile, but getting into a gay friend group is very competitive. At any given time I’ve only had 1 or 2 gay friends…never found a brunch bunch to join. Also, there are a lot of strivers…so DC remains the only place I’ve lived where I was dumped for someone “better.”

DC & it suburbs are ridiculously expensive- Particularly Virginia. A lot of my friends have moved to Richmond during the pandemic.

I grew up in NoVA and got the fuck out of DC at 18 in the late 1990s. That being said - any DLers remember old school Dupont Circle? Now it looks like it is designed for a bunch of sorority girls, but I loved it there back in the day. Used to take the metro in. So much character. I have very fond memories of that neighborhood.

DC DLers - has anything replaced that feeling of what Dupont Circle used to be like?

I also remember when Adams Morgan was thought to be very dangerous. My parents always cautioned against getting anywhere near Adams Morgan.

I started going to my neighborhood beer joint (outside DC) and it’s always so much fun. It’s a microcosm of the whole world, old bikers, young hipsters, first gen immigrants from everywhere. It’s easy to meet people and hear fascinating stories about their lives. That’s one reason I feel lucky to live here, it’s truly the American melting pot and you can find places where everyone socializes.

r216 there was a bookstore at Dupont Circle in the late 80s that was a beacon of culture for me at age 12-14, would skip out on my family in town for soccer matches and ride the Metro over from Crystal City. DC-based zines like GREED and glimpses of the DC hardcore scene like Dag Nasty, Black Flag with local boy made good Henry Rollins

Kramerbooks & Afterwords?

GREED magazine - archaeological evidence that DC briefly was the capital of punk

[quote] For a group often unfairly maligned as money grubbers, why they chose to build their museum next door to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is hard for me to understand.

What a stupid and offensive comment.

DC was never the capital of punk. When it comes to sports and popular culture, the pathetic-ness of DC shows through. Not much of a sports town or a well-spring of popular music . Favorite son Duke Ellington left as soon as he could.

for r222's summer reading list

People who complain that others aren’t “friendly” enough or that “the gay scene in X is too cliquey” are usually self-absorbed psychos in my experience.

Yes R218 and R219.

There was also a great coffee place in Dupont - can't remember the name but I thought I was really fucking cool as a teenager from the suburbs going to. I had to transfer from the Orange line to the Red line.

There was a dance studio called Joy of Motion. Anyone remember that? Owner was this hot little blonde bottom, I used to lust after him when I was in high school. Thought he was the sexiest thing I'd ever seen.

Nostalgia.

Joy of Motion moved (to Woodley Park or maybe it was Friendship Heights) but I think it's now disappeared. I can't recall a great coffee place other than Afterwords. Dupont Circle is very much changed from even ten years ago, and apart from the fountain it's almost unrecognizable from what it was in the 70s (cool, hip, filthy and pretty dangerous).

[quote]People who complain that others aren’t “friendly” enough or that “the gay scene in X is too cliquey” are usually self-absorbed psychos in my experience.

I was quite popular in NY and LA—my face, my ass, and my penis had numerous admirers—but when I moved next to Seattle, I could not get laid to save my life. The minute I left Seattle, I met a new boyfriend.

Seattle was not friendly. I honestly don't know how cliquey its gay scene was, as I was not allowed to participate. Worst two years of my life. And I am not a "self-absorbed psycho."

R227 I think that's called the Seattle Chill or something. Isn't it a thing that people in Seattle are notoriously cold to newcomers? I had read that when I was brainstorming cities to move to during peak Covid in NYC last spring.

R226 - yes Afterwords!

R227 Not to turn this into a Seattle thread .. christ almighty you’re 100% right. I lived in Seattle for two years as well. I think I had like 2 hook ups the entire time. I went on a couple dates. I hated Seattle… Everything about it. In Chicago and New York I had a very full life hook ups, dates & bf. I moved back to Chicago.

[quote]The best thing I did was visit the Holocaust Museum.

Did you pick up any hot numbers?

[QUOTE] There was also a great coffee place in Dupont - can't remember the name but I thought I was really fucking cool as a teenager from the suburbs going to.

I think you might be referring to “The Pop Stop” which was on 17th Street right near JR’s. I also came in from the NoVA burns to hang there as a teenager. We thought we were being so edgy going there and seeing other gays.

As soon as an Ann Taylor moved in on Connecticut Avenue, in the very early 00s, I knew Dupont was over. I think U Street/Shaw has become the new gayborhood.

Isn't NoVA becoming more "hipster"? Is there a scene or are they still dull?

[quote] here was also a great coffee place in Dupont - can't remember the name but I thought I was really fucking cool as a teenager from the suburbs going to.

I think you must mean Dunkin Donuts. That must have been a thrill for you.

R233 Lives in DC and has a very positive attitude toward others

Kramerbooks & Afterwords cafe is still there but rebranded as Kramers a couple of years ago. It's pretty much thr same.

I think the bookstore the person above may have been remembering was Lambda Rising. It was all LGBT books, magazines, cards, rainbow car stickers, etc. It had everything from adult content to kitschy camp to academic writing on LGBT culture and sexuality. It was still there when I made my first forays into the gay world at 18 in 1996.

The gay landscape of the city has changed a lot since then. There were small gay bars around Dupont and 17th Street, and big dance clubs (Tracks and Velvet Nation) in southeast, near the strip clubs. My first clubs were The Circle (a storefront on Conn Ave just north of the circle that has been a Chipotle for many years, but it fell victim to COVID and now is empty), Badlands at 22nd and P and Cobalt and Ozone at 17 and R.

I live in the city now and don't go out into the gay community because I frankly never felt accepted at all, but DC is nevertheless 99.9% gay friendly (even if rhe gay men are not friendly individually!). In fact, it practically feels gay owned and operated, or at least northeast does. Regular bro bars hang rainbow flags and have HRC stickers in their windows. I work two blocks from the HRC building and used to see Charlotte Clymer clomping down the block like Shrek in heels and no one batted an eye.

So there's not exactly a neighborhood or district like Dupont anymore since no safe haven is needed. In the sector I work in, it's genuinely surprising to encounter a man who isn't gay. Gay establishments are scattered all over, but 17th street does seem to continue on as a little mini-LGBT district that bears rainbow streamers and paint all year. The trendy gays like Logan Circle and the U Street area, the old gays can be found in quieter neighborhoods, young up and comers can be found in Columbia Heights and Capitol Hill, students are in Gtown, Foggy Bottom and Dupont/West End, Tenleytown and Cathedral Heights.

For years I refused to drink coffee at Kramerbooks because it had the most disgusting bathrooms. They have cleaned up since that time.

The bathrooms that are located two floors up and used to require a small coin to open?

[quote]Kramerbooks & Afterwords cafe is still there but rebranded as Kramers a couple of years ago. It's pretty much thr same.

Does it still smell like burned Gruyere when you walk in?

R237, I'm talking about before those newer bathrooms upstairs. They used to be right there on the first floor. Just dirty and disgusting.

DuPont now has Tatte bakery

DC was very late getting coffee culture and never had many local places until the last decade. The only places in Dupont in the 90s would have been Starbucks (4 locations in the Dupont area at one point), although Firehook may have entered the area by the late 90s. Kramer has had ups and downs. It's new owner also owns the execrable &pizza places that are sort of the Chipotle of pizza. Other cities have better versions of this.

Is Compass Coffee found in other cities? That’s my favorite D.C. coffee place at the moment. Specifically, the one in Shaw.

R241 Soho has been around since 1994. Young gay guys used to gather outside all night, or before and after Badlands.

I live in Pittsburgh, and one of the best coffee purveyors here is Zeke's. The original Zeke's is somewhere in NE DC, I believe. The website lists a downtown branch on 15th Street NW.

The Zeke's here is owned or operated by his nephew. Good coffee and Mrs. Zeke makes excellent pastries and cakes. I haven't been there since the pandemic, unfortunately.

[quote] Soho has been around since 1994.

I have never had anything decent from there - even the desserts I tried were blah. So early on I didn't bother with them - once in a while I'd try it again and it was always disappointing and overpriced.

I am pretty sure people used to sell drugs from the patio - it looked like they'd go across to the Fireplace where I assumed they'd have their stash and bring it back to the buyers. Maybe that still goes on - pre-pandemic that is.

Is the Pop Stop still in existence on 17th @ Church?

Is Navy Yard where the trust fund babies live?

[QUOTE] Is the Pop Stop still in existence on 17th @ Church?

No. I think it closed around ‘98.

[quote]DC was very late getting coffee culture

You'd think it'd be one of the first places

I knew a closeted FBI agent who took a *very* prestigious job at the HQ and he couldn't wait to get the fuck out. "I want to move back to America." Keep in mind he was deceptive and mean by nature - if he couldn't make it there, it must be awful.

R249 Probably because it wasn't really until the 2000s that much of non-impoverished DC began conversion into a living city. My dad worked for the federal government and he has told me that the downtown area would just die after 5:00 p.m. I know there are some restaurants and bars that serve a primarily black clientele and have been in downtown for decades, but I don't think there was anything like a coffee shop type of yuppie/guppie culture until the mid-late 90s. There was shopping and dining and drinking in Georgetown and some bars and restaurants on Connecticut and 17th, but nothing like we have now. I work by Farragut Square, one of the places where everything only served businesses before and closed at 5, and now there are lots of bars, etc., and some retail. D.C.'s drinking culture took off, but it was happy hour culture, and drinking while networking is still the city's predominant hobby and social activity.

R250/R251: Even into the mid-1980s the FBI HQ was surrounded by gay strip clubs, and clusters of adult book stores. It may have fronted to Pennsylvania Avenue but the east and north side were seedy and not the stuff of high rankings in the livability indices

R251 - what about around Capitol Hill? I remember it being a bit of a dicey area in the 90s - is it different now?

Farragut is a little livelier than it was 20 years ago--more restaurants, but it's still pretty dead after 5. I was on detail to an agency nearby and walked through there every day in the evening.

Capitol Hill has been gentrifying slowly since the 60s. Even in the 90s, the areas close to the Capitol were fine. There were more problems around Barracks Row. Gentrification now extends N of H Street (it was starting to approach H in the mid-90s) and, except for a few neighborhoods here and there, all the way to RFK.

The only problem with the Hill (and I've lived here for many years) is that some of the new business development, while welcome, has robbed it of its character. And Barracks Row is always going to be dicey in terms of street crime. Always.

I have really only spent time on Capitol Hill to visit congressional offices; I have no real idea of the living situation there...but because of the proximity to crime-ridden neighborhoods as well as the (as I see it—sorry!) infestation of Hill staffers and other political operatives, I just wouldn't consider it. The connotations I have with the neighborhood certainly color the way I see it. Some of residential areas I've seen don't look all that different from parts of Georgetown, objectively, and yet I can't help seeing them as a little run down and potentially dangerous because of my biases. Still, I've known plenty of people who live or lived there and like it.

Capitol Hill has a great sense of community -- lacking in Georgetown, I think. The Hill staffers and political operatives really don't make a dent.

What’s Anacostia like? Is it the Bronx of Washington?

It seems Like the vapid, dumb, bitchy effete and stereotypically gay types who aren’t into social and political issues don’t like DC. Great! This is not a place for you. We don’t want your superficial ilk here.

[quote]The Hill staffers and political operatives really don't make a dent.

Very true R258. People overestimate the numbers and influence of political operatives on neighborhoods, and particularly overestimate the emptying out and refilling of the city with new political appointees each election. From the way it's described and redescribed as if truth, you might think that whole streets were lined anew with FOR SALE signs every two and four years but it's not true on anything near the scale that's suggested. There's lots of movement, people coming in, people leaving, people moving around from one neighborhood or property to another, but where people might flood into the city in a small wave dispersed among various neighborhoods, they don't all leave in a single wave, some significant number will stay on in some different capacity after their guy leaves office. It's not a neat and clean changing of the guard and the numbers pale against the larger city. The

I've not been a champion of DC in this thread but the more interesting people I knew in DC were people who did not have presidential appointments (or work for people who do) or who whisk in with one administration and whisk out with another; there are a lot of people without jobs tied to politics, policy, lobbying, or even government and the people who stay longer, are invested in their neighborhoods, and have something going on beyond reading the latest ex-government official tell-all.

According to this survey, DC came in at 12th place out of the Top 15 Most Transient Large Cities in the U.S. at 19.2% (in a range of 18.7 to 24% (percentage of population who moved in past year. By comparison Chicago and Philadelphia tied fro 39th most transient major city at 14.7%; San Francisco at 14.5%; and NYC came in with just 10.4% transient rate. So transience in DC is definitely a factor, but its transience is hardly singular; it has a lot of company and not just in the top 15 list.

The Hill seems very southern to me …it is beautiful

I think Capital Hill is gorgeous and I love shopping at Eastern Market.

I don't know, r262--there are people here from all over the country, but I guess it might feel southern in terms of neighborliness.

Eastern Market is pretty much the Village Green, where you will always bump into people you know, but in the last dozen years it's felt a bit touristy on the weekends.

Logan Circle feels touristy

DC historically is a southern city.

In both cases, I think the tourists come from Arlington and Bethesda. The Iowans come to town to see the Air and Space Museum; the Mall is like Disneyland. It would never occur to most of them to come look at the neighborhoods.

It’s a let down city . A real Bad vibe city

chacun a son gout,

People who don’t like DC tend to be very valid, air head types who likely know nothing accurate about important current events and issues

Vapid not valid

This kind of generalization doesn't make you sound very smart, r270/271

DC was run like a Southern city but always had elements that weren't very Southern. Mt Pleasant was established as a neighborhood of civil servants from NY and New England. Georgetown, Foggy Bottom and neighborhoods in the lower ends of N Capitol and 7th Street had many Irish and German immigrants for decades. Greeks and Italians came later in the near downtown areas and then settled in the neighborhoods near the old Walter Reed. The area around Catholic was Irish and Italian for many decades, while neighborhoods to the West and North were mostly Jewish. The most "southern" parts of the city were East of the Anacostia which had many rural sections until WWII, with small Black enclaves. Baltimore was the second largest point of entry for immigrants during the big European migration period. Many of them went onward to work in coal mines or factories further West, but many stayed in Baltimore or established smaller communities in DC. The distinguishing feature of DC, except E of the Anacostia and in the SW quarter was how middle class it was. NW/SE split is a big social divider in the Black community, areas in NW (anywhere W of the Anacostia) being more middle class.

For real Southern character, the Virginia suburbs were the place to go. That has only begun to disappear in the last 20-30 years.

Is there any gentrification in Southeast DC?

Yes, but it's been slow and mostly the well-off areas around Fort Dupont Park and Hillcrest. The latter retained a small number of whites even after the neighborhood changed in the 70s. Anacostia, the neighborhood has had more talk of gentrification than anything real. Most of the gentrifiers seem to be Black.

Prince William and Stafford Counties are still quite southern. Confederate flags and sweet tea are common

Best part of Virginia is not having to listen that trashy Maryland accent.

Anacostia, unfortunately, remains geographically (the river), socially, and economically cut off from the rest of the city and change has indeed been very slow in this predominantly low-income Black area. Neighborhoods west of the river, as the poster above noted, have remained middle class/working class and racially mixed. Hillcrest is quite lovely, and kind of suburban-looking.

The Southwest (and Southeast) Waterfront, after decades of stagnation (following a revitalization attempt in the 60s to lure whites to the area), poverty and crime, has in the last dozen years changed completely--the baseball stadium, dozens of spiffy high-rise rental and condo buildings, a renovated Arena Stage and waterfront dining and retail. I think you have to be under 30 to live there, though. God knows where they get the $$.

Georgetown, one of the most charming areas of DC is an historically Black community. It was “integrated” during the Kennedy era.

Markers of its African American history remain.

NoMA and Union Market are the hot GenZ locations

They are building tons of Apartments in NOMA and SE DC near the ballpark and the Wharf, We recently hit over 700K people despite what the census says. I wouldn't be surprised if we hit 750K in the next decade. It makes for a more dynamic city though I do miss how empty it felt in the late 90's.

Brookland is moving up, too, especially for younger people who are priced out of Capitol Hill. The residential architecture isn't historically significant, or even especially distinctive, but the residential streets have a nice neighborhood vibe and the commercial district is pretty nice--cafes, bookstores, etc.

No place like home:

, chile.

Interesting thread. What parts of DC would you avoid at this point DC DLers in terms of crime?

[quote]Georgetown, one of the most charming areas of DC is an historically Black community. It was “integrated” during the Kennedy era

Georgetown was neither a Black community nor a white community but both, to varying degrees at varying times. In 1802 it included numerous in town estates like Tudor Place and Halcyon House, areas of free Blacks (especially at the eastern edges of the community in some of the frame houses that survive from the period,.) You seem to suggest it was a Black neighborhood infiltrated by whites during the Kennedy era. While the period between the wars saw an increase in the percentage of Black residents, it was never above about 30% (1930) — and did as you suggest drop about the time of the Kennedy presidency (9% in 1960.) But projects such as the ambitious expansion and garden design of Dumbarton Oaks between 1920 and 1940 when it was given to Harvard University by Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Barnes Bliss were not singular efforts by white infiltrators of the 1920s in a predominantly Black neighborhood that never quite was.

Lived there for 4 years that I'll never get back. Horrid place. Boring people. Worst energy. Never met anyone creative or interesting.

[QUOTE] People who don’t like DC tend to be very valid, air head types who likely know nothing accurate about important current events and issues

Most of the people complaining about the District are too stupid and/or poor to survive here.

Lol r288 - honey you keep telling yourself that.

Someone on here is obsessed with the District of Columbia. Are you mulling-over a Cater Waiter job, OP?

Georgetown was never majority Black. the one remaining Black church, the oldest AME church in DC and one of the oldest of any kind, a short distance away from the synagogue. Most blacks lived in the area near Rose Park or on the eastern end of the waterfront, which as the only area where they were a majority. Gentrification in Georgetown began during the FDR administration and really started further North or West and uphill from these areas--those were the neighborhoods with large homes. They also were close to the trolley that took people to Dupont Circle (a well off area well into the 20th century). The waterfront still had factories as late as early 70s. Georgetown and Foggy Bottom had a lot of Irish and German working class people, as well as Blacks. Much of Foggy Bottom was cleared and redeveloped during the FDR administration and the State Department located there.

to r285, the crime stats are up all over the city, even in leafy, bucolic Cleveland Park. I'd say avoid Shaw, but that would be no fun; ditto the Wharf and NoMa. You just have to be careful.

I live have lived in Northwest since 2010. I walk almost everywhere I go, day and night. In all these years, the only crime I have seen was a couple of years ago, two guys on a motorcycle cut across Connecticut Ave, ran up on the curb, snatched a phone out of a woman's hand and drove away. Nothing else. Homeless people with varying degrees of volume/aggressiveness have called out to me but never with any kind of altercation.

I have seen a few people on foot and on bikes get hit by cars.

R288 Clearly you've never lived in New York, dahling.

DC is experiencing a crime wave right now. Violent, random crime can happen anywhere in the city. Some of the most affluent areas have seen vicious attacks and stray bullets claim lives

R287 ditto that.. boring af current affairs politico douches

Bullets flying near posh restaurants and condos

Woman jogging in gentrified Logan Circle randomly stabbed to death with horrified onlookers watching

[quote]the Mall is like Disneyland. It would never occur to most of them to come look at the neighborhoods.

I used to work at the National Gallery of Art, the crowds are never-ending, it's ridiculous.

[quote]DC is experiencing a crime wave right now. Violent, random crime can happen anywhere in the city. Some of the most affluent areas have seen vicious attacks and stray bullets claim lives

This is happening in every major city in the U.S.

Man randomly stabbed to death at midday on NoMA train in front of passengers

Random Man shoots woman and five year old son in Logan Circle

Elites run for cover as driveby shooting injures shoppers and patrons on 14th Street

Teacher killed

R297 very very sad ..

I have a relative as well as a co-worker who were friends with this woman and I met her once at a wedding. Her rape and murder in D.C. on Christmas Day still haunts me.

Oh god that’s sad

Crime is up everywhere

So is there much crime in DC?

Yes.

Love it there, and used to visit every summer for a work conference. I don’t think I could live there though. OP is a brainless, dizzy kaween.

The violent crime is concentrated in about 5 or 6 specific locations, hardly random. Nothing like it was 25 years ago.

So sorry, R305. It was a haunting event. I do remember it very well.

I still have a problem out and out lying in putting forth a client's defense. Especially when it doesn't pass the laugh test in the face of overwhelming evidence. While we are obligated to defend zealously and here I suppose PDS could argue this nutter told them his unbelievable story as grounds for their good faith basis, arguing against competency and still relying on his ridiculous version of events hardly strikes me as good faith.

I am not comfortable with his release at the age of 60. He will never be rehabilitated. This is the type of defendant who will reoffend after he is released.

Maybe he can decide he's a woman and get into a women's prison so he can have fresh prey.

R311 is ignorant

Georgetown

Upper Connecticut Avenue

Lord and Taylor near Chevy Chase murder

Gunfire at baseball park sends fans scurrying for safety

Brazen daytime carjacking by teen girls kills man in Navy Yard

Can someone please post links to DC crime stories? What about Chandra Levy?

R313 lives in a bunker in Prince William County and has to go way back for links. The shootings predictably have been 7th & O area, Truxton Circle, Brightwood business district, Columbia Heights. Like a bad record.

And also Georgetown, Tenleytown, NOMA, Shaw, Brookland, Eastern Avenue, Navy Yard, Barrack’s Row…

Maserati

Memorial Day on Capitol Hill

Maserati

which area is more desirable, Navy Yard or Capitol Hill (in the Supreme Court area)?

Capitol Hill if you don’t care about night life, restaurants, hotties

Are the NoVa suburbs safer than the MD side?

R321: Not on a regular basis. Stay in your bunker so we don't have to put up with you. Hopefully, one of you'll be safe from your local meth heads.

[quote]The violent crime is concentrated in about 5 or 6 specific locations, hardly random. Nothing like it was 25 years ago.

The first statement is false, the second is true.

As I said at R299, the increase in homicides is a nationwide problem, that doesn't make it any less disturbing but this isn't limited to the DC area.

R327 yes.. outside of Bethesda - Maryland is white trash.

[quote]outside of Bethesda - Maryland is white trash.

That's a new one. Where are you from R330?

How is the rest of Montgomery County white trash? I grew up in Potomac and there is nothing white trash about it.

And what about Howard County?

Demographics change outside metropolitan areas, this is true throughout the country

R331 My cousins live in Rockville. I cant stand listening to their accent. Its fucking awful.

Accent? Where in Rockville? Can you describe their Rockville accent?

I don't want to derail the thread but Montgomery County is home to some of the best public high schools in the country, including Wooton in Rockville. A few years ago a linguist turned horticulturist randomly referred to my Mid-Atlantic accent, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. For reference, I was in elementary in the 80s and assume they no longer teach children to sound like Frasier & Niles Crane.

Nobody ever acquired an accent in Rockville. They must originally have been from somewhere else--Baltimore, Philly and Delaware have noticeable accents.

I have never heard of a Rockville accent. For one thing, most people who live there are not originally from there

The Maryland accent and some parts of Virginia....wash is warsh, water is wooter, the absence of the letter L is noticable. Hold on becomes Hode Oin

R336 They also roll their L out. Hearing them say the name Linda is horrific.

My coworkers from Maryland say "brefusses" (breakfasts) and "pillncill" (pencil), and I love it. It's so weird.

[quote] My cousins live in Rockville. I cant stand listening to their accent. Its fucking awful.

Are they from Queens?

A Maserati in the 1600 block of Eastern Ave? LOL!

In my experience the Baltimore accent (warsh) and its derivations are most prevalent in the northern part of the state.

Any other DC DLers experiencing the horrors of these bites?

I am so itchy. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Linking NYPost article because Washington Post is paywalled.

Yes, R342. We have them up in my NW neighborhood, and I’ve been bitten. When I take the dog out for a walk I have stopped walking under or near pin oaks or really any oak trees. I haven’t been bitten in about a week — but the bites from last week still itch every once in a while.

I was over at a friend’s pool over the weekend and I noticed that he had these same bites on his back and arms. He had not heard about the damn oak mites.

Cicadas — the gift that keeps on giving.

[QUOTE] Any other DC DLers experiencing the horrors of these bites?

Actually, yes I am! I thought they were mosquito bites but I’ve barely gone outside lately.

Ugh.

No mite bites for me yet but I haven't spent much time outside since it's been over 90. I read the mites are tiny and dispersed in the air, so be wary.

My sister lives in NOVA and she is absolutely covered in them after a weekend gardening. She saw a doctor yesterday and he told her his wife is also covered in them, and then a woman in the waiting room told my sister she was there to see the doctor about her welts.

How many biblical plagues have we had now?

1. Plague (covid)

2. Locusts (cicadas)

3. Pestilence (mites)

Any others?

4. Trumo

4. Trump

R345 yes I was visiting NOVA and got covered in them. Like mosquito bites on speed. Woke up in the middle of the night itching like crazy. Huge welts.

4. hail

Back in May there was a storm with hail the size of golf balls but maybe it only hit the Maryland suburbs.

Actually, R349, there have been reports of several hail storms around the country with large-size hail, both golf ball size and larger.

Washington lacks PIZAZZ.

Yeah, but does it lack pizza?

R352 DC has its own trademark kind of pizza, for which it is not famous. It's like New York pizza except a lot bigger and not as good.

Not being snarky. It's just true.

Where do you get your pizza, r353?

DC has its own hotdogs: half smokes.

Half Smoke in the Shaw neighborhood is delicious.

Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street is obviously very well-known (and was famously spared during the MLK riots in the ‘60s), but it’s more of a once in a blue moon type place for me. I have to be really drunk on a Saturday night at 2am and starving.

Half smokes are now popularly called glizzies, which has become a word for you know what

Unfortunately, Ben's Chili Bowl tethered its image to Bill Cosby for many decades and ran out of luck when he was found guilty of being a serial rapist.

If the 2020 Census is close to being accurate, DC got whiter and Maryland got much more diverse.

It's lovely, I had a mother who lived there once.

I’ve had to Oak Mite bites they’re itchy as hell

Will Anacostia ever be gentrified or is it just too violent, too poor and just too ghetto to ever attract yuppie couples? I guess young lower middle class Black couples wouldn't consider buying their first homes in Anacostia either and would prefer PG County in Maryland.

It is being gentrified already

R362 All neighborhoods are constantly in flux.

When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, Georgetown was the height of preppy/yuppy kids who were a little fancier than typical mall rats.

When my mom grew up in Arlington in the 50s and 60s, she and her friends used to walk across the bridge to the liquor shop (Dixie Liquors is still there!) because the drinking age in DC was 18, not 21. She said she was always warned to stay sway from Georgetown because it was thought to be very dangerous with drugs and violent crimes.

That was hard for me to imagine until time passed. Logan Circle was sketchy and Shaw was scary when I was young, and now Logan is one of the most expensive areas (ever since a Whole Foods moved in) and Shaw is 'up and coming.'

When I started going to clubs, I wanted to dance and so I went to Tracks in southeast, right by the Navy Yard, and it was...known for drugs and violent crimes. Now Navy Yard is 'up and coming.'

I just met someone who works in my office building, a guy with scraggly red hair and a red beard my age (43) who grew up in a trailer in Anacostia. He said his family of Irish immigrants has been in Anacostia for many generations but that it's beginning to price the locals out of the area and force them into PG county.

That's a plan that has been in place for decades. I read in the Washington Post two decades ago that the federal government was buying up warehouses and other large buildings in Southeast as 'future investments,' forcing local residents and tenants out and into Prince George's County, MD, and that the idea was to passively force poorer people to vacate the area and then move operations there when it's considered more desirable but still more affordable, and reap profits as the area becomes trendy over time. And they've been doing it.

Here for the weekend. I love DC but hadn’t been here in three years and the proliferation of tent cities outside Union Station, around the Capitol, and along the National Mall is really depressing.

R365 They're everywhere. Wait until you see Dupont Circle.

It's an outgrowth or COVID-19. Cramming homeless people into shelters is a lot less safe than giving them space on the streets and in parks.

NoMA has so many homeless

NoMa sucks. My friend was looking for a new place to live and found a nice condo there. I told him not to go because none of our friends are there, none of the places we hang out are in NoMa and it’s just so far. He didn’t listen and ended up moving there.

Now, all he does is complain about it. And he had to take $20-plus Ubers to come meet us for anything. NoMa is a hard no for me.

NoMa is weird to me. It's like it was built to feel claustrophobic and industrial in the most off putting way. I don't get it. I'll stick to quiet NW, thankyou.

NoMa isn't really a neighborhood yet. That is a real estate name.

Middle class and working black families who want to advance financially need to buy homes and for the most part they aren't going to do that in D.C. They move to the suburbs and then their kids will grow up yearning to live in a more exciting neighborhood in the city. That's how it works.

They seem to be copying the NY/LA real estate model with these abbreviations.

But NOMA has Union Market and La Cosecha and REI. It has a cool industrial vibe too

Diahann Carroll?

Yes, old starchy people won’t like NOMA. It’s not for you.

You don't have to be that old for an industrial vibe to get old pretty quick. It's one thing to have fun partying there, it's another to live there.

It’s cool for me. Different strokes, dude.

The people in DC have an extra drawer and their bedroom for all their bowties?

R366, that really shocked me. I used to live in DC, and was visiting last month. While walking near the Safeway in Dupont Circle there was a full-size tent set up on the sidewalk, and a homeless man begging, the underpass near Georgetown was also full of tents. I never remember it being that bad.

[quote]The people in DC have an extra drawer and their bedroom for all their bowties?

Well, we sure as shit know the Republican ones have lots of closets.

[quote] While walking near the Safeway in Dupont Circle

There's no Safeway in Dupont Circle. Do you mean the CVS?

[quote]There's no Safeway in Dupont Circle.

17th and Corcoran.

The tents are also all set up across from union station now. And there were more aggressive panhandlers in union station.

Thank you, R381. The one near Annie’s…about a block away from where Cobalt used to be.

[quote] that really shocked me. I used to live in DC, and was visiting last month. While walking near the Safeway in Dupont Circle there was a full-size tent set up on the sidewalk, and a homeless man begging, the underpass near Georgetown was also full of tents. I never remember it being that bad.

I'm not criticizing the poster who wrote this, but just kind of all of us, including myself. We're all bothered by seeing these tents all around. They're unsightly. But also, we wonder, how did the homeless problem get so bad?

The 'homeless problem' has been this bad for a long time. We just can't ignore it as we typically do because the tents make it impossible not to see how many people are out there.

I have heard so many people complain about this and ask how the 'homeless problem' became so bad and why the city won't do something about it. (I think most people actually mean the city should make them invisible however it can.)

The reality is that these people are so visible right now because of COVID. They've been granted exceptions to former regulations just as we all have in different ways. Prior to the pandemic, shelters like tents were not allowed in parks and on streets (except when hidden among trees in a fee spots) because they offend people by being unsightly, but granting them the ability to set up tents in heavily trafficked areas where they are safer was done for their health and safety so they can keep a distance and not die of COVID.

This *is* the city helping homeless people at the cost of making wealthier residents and tourists hold their noses.

R384: That's the best the city can do? Rub the noses of wealthier residents in the shit of the homeless and mentally ill?

"Wealthier residents and tourists" deserve to live in their homes and work in their workplaces and enjoy their streets in safety and comfort.

Homeless and mentally ill people should have better than to be stuffed under highway overpasses or left to set up camp on the sidewalks (or why not the front lawns?) of Cleveland Park residents "because Covid."

The city throwing up its hands and failing both sets of people is a remedy for nobody, and making wealthier people and tourists hold their noses should give no one pleasure because it certainly gives helps no one.

[quote] Homeless and mentally ill people should have better than to be stuffed under highway overpasses or left to set up camp on the sidewalks (or why not the front lawns?) of Cleveland Park residents "because Covid."

What would you recommend given that homeless shelters are not made to accommodate safe social distancing that is required right now?

People already complain about high DC taxes. From where do you expect the city to draw resources to accommodate homeless people privately in a way that is better than where they are now without pissing off residents and being voted out for raising taxes? DC is paying back rent from the past 18 months for any resident who lost their job during COVID to keep people in homes. I feel like the city is investing a lot, but I hear everyday people complain about high taxes in the city and about the unsightliness of tents. How do you suggest DC fix this? The typical solution, as has been done in NYC and wealthy parts of California and Florida is to make being homeless illegal and push them into poor neighboring areas. That's a standard solution. Do you think that is a better approach?

People talk about how tents should be removed to make streets safe, but I haven't heard about violent incidents by homeless people who live in tents against passersby, have you?

There are tents cities all over the US. We have a huge homeless problem.

Oh you mean the Soviet Safeway. Piece of shit store. They should be embarrassed to have that still exist.

You can call that Dupont Circle. I'd never call that Dupont Circle.

Why wouldn't you call it Dupont Circle, R388? It's three blocks (0.3 miles) from Dupont Circle. I've had longer driveways.

And what would you call it: Adams-Morgan? Shaw? Logan Circle?

Dupont Circle has specific and stated boundaries that are commonly understood, it's not some aspirational bit of real estate fluff, like Kalorama South.

Dupont Circle on the map

R389 The 'I'd never call that Dupont' person is probably also the person who would never call Kalorama Triangle Kalorama even though it is the half of the Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood that gives the neighborhood the name Kalorama, all because it's to the east of Connecticut and not where the Obamas and ambassadors live. Somebody here has determined his own neighborhood boundaries that he thinks override the city's mapped out boundaries. Don't take it too seriously because he's probably ready to argue some rationale with you for days that the 'Soviet Safeway' is too poor and therefore must only be called Lesser Dupont or Faketrashy Dupont if it must be called Dupont at all!

[QUOTE] You can call that Dupont Circle. I'd never call that Dupont Circle.

This is completely retarded. Of course the Soviet Safeway is in Dupont Circle. What would you call that neighborhood then? What neighborhood would you say JRs is located?

You’ve either never lived here or you’re some dumb Gen Z bitch who just got here a month ago.

17th St is Dupont Circle morin

R393 Dupont Circle is a CIRCLE and 17th street is a straight line, so it can't be Dupont CIRCLE.

People in DC refer to that section of 17Th Street as DuPont Circle

[quote] You’ve either never lived here or you’re some dumb Gen Z bitch who just got here a month ago.

Lived here in DC proper since 1979. Sorry to disappoint you. But as I said those of us who live near the circle consider that fringey.

The 17th & Corcoran isn't Dupont Circle count is exhibit #1156 of why I hate the city

I thought this was a thread about DC. Why are people talking about poor places like Dupont Circle and Logan Circle and Kalorama? People who live in Real DC, at the White House, don't consider anything off the White House grounds to be DC. Sorry, losers. All of you are poor, powerless suburban losers who do shameful suburban things like grocery shopping. I lived in DC from 2016-2020 and real DC is the White House. And let me tell ya, what a dump!

Donald at R398, sit your tired, fat, orange, diapered ass down. There is a new President in town and she will not tolerate you commenting on her official residence in your usual vulgar style. I rule the country now and you are nothing but a bad memory for us now, mmmkay?

R399 Kamala, what are you doing here? This is a thread about DC and you live in Observatory Circle, which no real DC resident considers part of real DC. LOL. You don't even live by the Obamas. You live a full two miles from them, closer to the suburban LOSERS north of Georgetown who pretend they have some clout. Get over yourself, you suburban witch.

I gotta say, I'm quite enjoying watching the locals fight over this neighborhood or that neighborhood.

See? It's not just us who pulls that shit.

Ah the Observatory. Fun memories of going there at night with friends wearing deely boppers to gaze at the stars. The guards thought we were nuts.

Of course that is DC. WTF are you from? Mars?

Visit for the occasional terrorist threats from white trash!

I guess you could call if Dupont East but it’s still Dupont Circle. Just like Hill East is still Capitol Hill.

Here's the complete ranking, with the percentage cost-of-living adjustment and adjusted median income for each county in the top 10:

Loudoun County, 12.3%, $126,674 Stafford County, 4.8%, $106,048 Forsyth County, Ga. (Atlanta suburb), 3.9%, $103,161 Fairfax County, 21.1%, $103,100 Douglas County, Colo., 17.3%, $102,110 Delaware County, Ohio (Columbus suburb), 4.9%, $101,897 Prince William County, 5.3%, $101,720 Los Alamos County, N.M., 21.6%, $99,813 Fort Bend County, Texas (Houston suburb) -1.8%, $99,515 Williamson County, Tenn., 14.3%, $98,841

I love DC and this thread (a fight over Kalorama Triangle! There must be fewer than 500 people in the world who even know what that is!).

As to the MD accent - My grandmother who grew up in DC back when a good chunk of the city was still farmland had a full southern accent, not Maryland. There’s a big cultural divide between the Baltimore suburbs and the Washington ones. (The most accurate Baltimore accent I’ve heard on TV was the older female school principal in The Wire.)

It was nice when the city was quieter, but also significantly more racially segregated and polarized, and the 90% of the restaurants used to be awful.

In olden days, r406, I liked Luigi’s (mostly for pizza), Port O’Georgetown, and this place on Wisconsin where the waiters were on roller skates. There were also some expensive French places.

There is also a big divide between the DC Maryland suburbs and DC Virginia suburbs.

I grew up in NOVA in the 80s/90s - very few Jews back then. The Jews were all in Maryland (I'm Jewish).

Anyone remember the great Vietnamese restaurant on M Street close to the Four Seasons. Loved that place.

R408, I used to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant on M Street during the 1990s, with a friend who was born in Vietnam. We walked from Dupont Circle (17th Street) to Georgetown every Saturday in nice weather for a year or so.

I love that R409. I remember the spring rolls being incredible. They had an amazing spring rolls over vermicelli type dish that I loved. And a salmon in a clay pot dish that was so good.

R408 Agreed Virginians hate people in Maryland. It’s an odd thing to witness when you first move to DC.

Yes, r410, the spring rolls were so good, sometimes I'd just order them. Mainly I'd eat fish, though.

In other matters, I wonder where the queen who insists the Corcoran Street Safeway isn't in Dupont Circle would describe where I lived ( Q @ 17th).

[quote] Agreed Virginians hate people in Maryland.

For what ridiculous reason?

It is a competition thing I think

Virginians don’t hate Marylanders. It’s Moreso that Virginians have viewed Maryland as an inferior, liberal, high tax state.

Marylanders think Virginians are undeservedly snobbish, while Virginians think Marylanders are trashy poor relations.

Virginians are even more embarrassed to be related by name to West Virginia and pretend they don’t exist.

Marylanders and West Virginians understand each other and peacefully coexist.

Marylanders and Pennsylvanians loathe each other.

Delaware and DC both get along with everyone, pretty much.

Also Virginia is observably more southern and conservative even despite recent changes, which creates some tension with DC and Maryland

Virginians, even from the most rural parts, are on a permanent high horse about being related to the “first” settlers and having so many Founding Fathers, and then all the Robert E Lee worship. Meanwhile, Maryland goes back just as long but I guess was full of low achieving people, or something, and has no Presidents to show for it? It’s a strange dynamic.

I lived in the District for 20 years. If I had had to live in a suburb, the choice would have depended on the distance to work. I worked in Bethesda twice, and since it's contiguous with the District, I never felt the need to move. I don't like bridges.

Doesn't VA have loons running for the Rep. gubernatorial primary? It seems that VA's snobbery and current status can be traced to the influx of Northern transplants who are the only reason they now have respectability. They had to turn blue to not look like complete trash.

northern*

Do you have a Potomac River gives Virginia a sort of important geographic and psychological distance from DC and Maryland. Many who move to Virginia from elsewhere choose it because it is perceived as prosperous, safe, low taxed, great for raising family, quasi Southern, and pleasantly suburban

Oh no, Virginia’s snobbery goes far far back to the “First Families of Virginia.” Even growing up in DC in the 80s, you would hear this cited, along with the fairy tales about “gentleman farmers” and the “loyalty” of Robert E Lee.

A huge percentage of Virginia’s current population moved here from somewhere else. It’s not like most of us grew up here

R408, there were 2 Vietnamese restaurants next to each other. The one on the corner with the patio was more expensive but they were both great. I swear they shared the same kitchen and just decided to serve a different customer base. LOL! I didn't realize they were gone I used to eat there all the time.

They were on the southside of M Street maybe 30th Street.

Virginia isn't a low tax state anymore...I was considering moving to Arlington and once you get the county tax it is about the same as DC.

Income tax is Low in virginia

R423, is there still a substantial population of those descendants who are looked upon with envy or did most just become middle/low income deplorable trash?

R427, but property taxes are outrageous. I looked at homes in NoVA and it was comparable to what I'm paying here in NYC.

R429, property taxes are a) determined on a county level and b) based on the value. Both tend to higher property taxes in NoVA, but not necessarily the rest of the state. These counties have some of the highest incomes in the country.

It's crazy, R430. I was actually shocked when I saw it.

R428 They aren’t looked upon with envy, but they will let you know with pride. As a biased Marylander, that’s sort of the old school Virginia thing - they are bragging and snobbish about things that matter to them but not others. But the earlier comments are correct that this is rare now in Northern Virginia (except for Old Town Alexandria). I’m sure some people who move there are confused why their neighbor keeps saying “I’m a Cary, you know, one of The Carys.”

Tell me more about the military studs in the area and what they like to do and where they hang out. Somebody mention marine butt - sounds good

The one thing I’ve noticed is they have completely different accents. You travel a bit out of northern Virginia people sound southern…like even in Leesburg. 20 miles outside of DC everybody starts sounding like white trash Baltimore.

My bitch frau cousin from Rockville always called Virginia “Maryland’s Mexico” when we were kids (I lived in NOVA). She was very condescending about it - said Virginia was southern trash. So I think the nastiness can go both ways.

We lived there because it was closer to my mother’s job - I think she would have preferred Maryland.

Someone from Rockville has no business calling another place trashy

This discussion has become so strange.

I'm the one who lives in Kalorama Triangle—which is to say Kalorama—but I grew up in Loudoun County and I don't recognize a lot of the dynamics you guys are discussing.

Growing up, we never thought much about Maryland except that it was presented on the local news with DC and Virginia, and I had some friends whose families were from there.

I lived in eastern Loudoun, which is Fairfax adjacent (literally, on the map), and while it was more pastoral than Fairfax when my family moved there (from Fairfax) in 1984, it's now basically Fairfax but newer.

Leesburg and Manassas were the boundaries I recognized as where Northern Virginia becomes Old Virginia, with gun racks and Confederate flags on trucks and twangs in voices. Leesburg is a little bit less like that now than it used to be, but that element is still there.

North of Leesburg is Frederick, Maryland, which is the only place in Maryland I ever went to besides the beaches when I was young and it is mountainous and rural and basically West Virginia.

Living in DC for the past decade, I work with a lot more Marylanders than Virginians. (Not many of us live in DC.) The Maryland people are as different as the areas of Virginia I described: Prince George's County people belong to one culture, Silver Spring people to another, Tacoma Park to another...and then there are the Bethesda people.

Because of their consistency, I've coined the term "Bethesda Liberals" to refer to wealthy people with powerful parents who had easy rides at the most elite universities and who believe with their hearts and souls in liberal values—in theory. But in day to day life, they ignore and look down their noses at black people, immediately assess people's worthiness of speaking to them by sussing out where they went to school and what they do, etc. They believe in large social programs, governmental and nonprofic charities, to lift people out of lower socioeconomic statuses but they *do not* want to waste their important time speaking to them. I'm a 40-something gay white guy from Virginia and my closest work friend is a black single mother my age who grew up in DC and PG County, and two of the Bethesda Liberal execs in my office asked someone why I talk to my black friend. They told me, I was floored, and I went to each of them and told them that I talk to her and I consider her a friend because she has integrity and I respect her as a human being, which is hard to do for some people.

I don't see a VA/MD rivalry like people are describing. The one thing I can say is that Virginia people say Marylanders drive like they're crazy and Marylanders say the same about Virginians. I had to drive to Maryland this spring and literally had to drive off the road to avoid being hit and so I am Virginian in that respect.

I don't think of Marylanders as 'trash' as someone said but I do silently write off everyone who tells me they live in Bethesda.

R407, were the restaurants La Niçoise and Viet Dien?

Yes, r438, La Niçoise was the roller skating restaurant. I'm not sure about the name of the Vietnamese restaurant. It could have been Viet Dien.

[QUOTE] Tell me more about the military studs in the area and what they like to do and where they hang out. Somebody mention marine butt - sounds good

What do you want to know? One of the fucked the hell out of me just the other day. It’s incredibly easy to pick up military cock in this city.

A lot of the young ones hang out at the Marine Barracks on Eighth Street in Southeast. Just walk up and down the street, you’ll run into little packs of them (with freshly shaved heads).

Smh

Here’s another nostalgia question…

Anyone remember a middle eastern place Shemali’s next to Murphy’s (behind the old Giant) on Wisconsin avenue up by the Cathedral? They had amazing steak and cheese sandwiches. It was a tiny place but amazing food and they had prepackaged takeout food.

And this is really old but anyone remember Powder and Smoke on Wisconsin in Georgetown?

I live and work in Northwest DC and the last time I saw military men (and women) was during the racial protests that made businesses shutter with plywood and dispersed uniformed military throughout the city. And that was the first time in many years I had seen men in uniform in day to day life.

I'm sure that is different at the Navy Yard, but generally speaking, I feel like people who are not in DC may have a major misconception about military presence here. There are visitors to various federal agencies and Congress and the White House, of course, but out on the streets, you see locals, lawyers, lobbyists, wonks, tourists, et al. but not that often military people in uniform.

Military people are based in Arlington, Alexandria, Andrews and Ft Meade bases in Maryland, but few travel to DC regularly. I imagine if I were fantasizing about military dick, I'd hang out around the Pentagon and maybe move near there. It's very close to DC but there is very little movement between there and DC except for high-level government officials.

Also huge military presence around Fort Belvoir and Fort Meade

People in Virginia truly don’t like to go to DC beyond work, and Vice versa. Totally different vibes and types of people. When my Virginia friends and neighbors are invited to something in DC, they usually don’t attend. They complain about having to find parking, congestion, and crime.

So true, r445. I had a friend who lived in Arlington when I lived in DC (17th Street in Dupont Circle) who, when he came to meet me once for brunch on a Sunday, turned around and went home because he couldn't find a parking spot in one spin around the block. This was pre-cellphone, and he didn't call me until an hour after he got home. "I forgot. Oops. Sorry."

I didn't call him again for quite some time.

What is Eckington like?

Someone I know through work just bought a place there, said it is somewhat up and coming (e..g,, gentrifying)

Uh-oh, r447. You're going to wake the "Nobody lives in Petworth" troll.

Seriously, some queen was shrieking about the horribility of (gradually gentrifying) Petworth a few years back and, well, Eckington isn't that far from Petworth.

I am not very familiar with DC, R447, it came up on the chatter at the beginning of a Zoom call because this guy and his wife had just bought the place and he was explaining why there were still boxes in the background.

^^I am R447, response was for R448

I work with someone who bought a large rowhouse in Petworth about five years ago. She loves her house and her neighborhood.

She's white, from Connecticut, talks about her family vacation home in the Poconos, her grandmother paid for her four years at American University (about $60k a year), married with a dog and no kids, hardworking and friendly except when drunk, when she becomes aggressive...basically a typical affluent white woman type. She wouldn't like the neighborhood if she felt unsafe there or like it's beneath her status.

Petworth still has a high amount of crime. Not for the faint of heart

Letsh chat about deeshee!

R452 speaks the truth. Petworth has many people like R451 identifies, who move into these lovely, expensive renovated homes — and are then surprised by the crime that happens all too often and much too close-by.

R454 No crimes yet, but she did find a family of mice nesting inside her living room sofa and they had rats and raccoons in the attic and walls.

Good, R455. But it is just a matter of time, unfortunately.

The mice are a perennial problem. Rats are as well, depending on where you live. The closer to restaurants the worse it is. Don’t get me started on the fucking raccoons — though that is not a problem that I currently have.

No thanks for Petworth.

You’re absolutely right Virginia and will not come in to DC except for work. Maryland folk are even worse. Asking someone to ride on the red line from Glenmont.: well That will never happen. Forget about seeing your friend.

Is the Green Line still as shitty as it used to be 15 years ago? It used to go through some extremely seedy neighborhoods. I had to take it a few times when visiting friends who were studying at the U of Maryland.

What is Silver Spring like?

Did they ever manage to make that happen?

Yes, La Nicoise had the skating waiters who did a skit at the end of the night with the kitchen staff. I have no memories of what the skits were about - just some farcical stuff. The food was very good as well and it had a nice atmosphere. It was just below the Social Safeway and up from the library.

What are the best hotel bars whereat out of work OnlyFans models may ply their wares?

R462 Anywhere on Capitol Hill if it has to be a hotel bar. Otherwise, J.R.'s is where you go to pick up a slab of meat.

Good luck finding a hotel on Capitol Hill.

Best hotel bars are the St. Regis Bar, Hay Adams, The Eaton (fabulous rooftop), The Viceroy (Rooftop and Side Bar), The Tabard Inn in winter, super cozy.

Cap Hill is (in)famous for its endemic rat population.

Where does Jake Tapper live in DC?

I’m going trap him out of that lifeless marriage he is currently tied to.

R467 I met him when he was a keynoter at a conference I worked. He looked a lot older in person than he does on TV (except the first couple of days of COVID isolation when he broadcast from home and CNN hadn't figured out how to light and filter people) and he was shorter than I expected. Seemed like a pretty friendly guy compared to some others (David Gregory, Joe and Mika). He emailed his talking points to us to print out...apparently he wrote them in the car on the way over, and it looked like a long, abstract poem...a sentence here, fragments there, keywords, etc. But he spoke well.

R468

Jake comes off like a frat bro douche?

But good to know he is friendly, seems like his career is #1 & everything else in his life (wife/kids) is for optics.

I love the story that he went on a date with Monica Lewinsky in Adams Morgan not too long before the Clinton scandal broke. He said nice things about her while everyone else was trashing her - gentlemanly.

For the poster who asked about Silver Spring, that downtown area must be cursed, it never seems to catch on in popularity, even with the nice theater. Losing Discovery a few years back was a tough blow.

R470

Jake wrote in a kinda obsessed way about with this date w/ Monica.. He knew they would never have a 2nd date, but still wanted fame to link himself to her after the scandal broke.

Kinda creepy, but Jake talks to 16 yr olds on twitter, so not surprised.

Jake dated her, but did Jake tap 'er?

That was me R470-- is it a nice place to live though, despite not really catching on?

On paper it seems like it's an easy commute into the main part of DC, but the apartments are bigger and cheaper and there are plenty of restaurants you can walk to

^^And thank you!

R472

Jake didn’t TAP Monica.

But from his aggressive behavior seems like he hasn’t been TAPPED in a while! And this dude has been married for 15 years-time to pull the plug.

R473 It is nice if you’re looking for a suburban home that is more affordable than Bethesda. A little more run down than Takoma Park next door but also less expensive. The only time I hear of people going out there from DC is for concerts at The Fillmore (nice venue!), but the people who live there seem happy enough.

Anyone been to Crisfields in silver spring? Great seafood restaurant when I was a kid. We would drive over from Nova for dinner.

R475 It's a pun, dummy.

R468 were joe and mika as cunty and stupid as they appear on TV?

Let’s have the DC Anchor Gossip-

Somebody has to have some dish!

R479 Limited interaction, but from what I recall, yes, they just arrived and stood by looking impatient before they took the stage. They did a rehearsed, schticky, almost Vaudevilian performance that just went over like a lead balloon except to MSNBC fanatics. It was really weird because this conference is usually all politicians and serious political journalists who give wonky speeches about legislation, and here were Mika and Joe doing lame banter, volleying their chatter back and forth, smugly fake-laughing at one another's comments, etc. Basically what you'd expect, like their chatter on Morning Joe but amped up for a live audience. I just thought it was terrible. They came across as completely fake in every way, which was so completely weird in context.

I saw Joy Reid at another conference, not my org's, and she was even worse. It was actually a week into her blog scandal and so that explains why she was so distracted, but it was really terrible. She was the keynoter for a general session in a ballroom with about 800-1,000 people. The host had paid for her to be there. She arrived a half hour late and walked in through the ballroom door, down the aisle to the stage. She was nervous, her voice was shaky, she shuffled through notes and said something like, "I'm so sorry I'm getting here late, but you're lucky to have me. I didn't think the plane was going to arrive on time." She then spoke for about 20 minutes, basically reading what sounded like Wikipedia articles. Almost everyone in the room was the CEO in their sector, and she basically gave an elementary book report about what that sector does and how it came into being. At some point, people started getting up and leaving. Half the room left. I felt awful for the conference host. It was mortifying. A woman turned around at the table in front of me and our eyes met and she mouthed "this is humiliating." Then Reid changed the topic to civil rights and talked about that for about 20 minutes and that was it. Really weird. I imagine the meeting host paid $20k-$50k for that speech, plus travel.

Re Silver Spring. The downtown is packed but I don’t like it. We went to the movies at the big AMC there and it was so chaotic and filled with out of control teens that we just left. Some good restaurants. Wouldn’t want to live downtown Silver Spring but the whole area is huge and very suburban in parts. Some really low end areas too.

R481, you’ve posted this Joy Reid thing (literally word-for-word) on DL before. Do you have it as a note on your phone or something?

Someone tell us about Jake Tapper!

He has cheated on his wife from what I’ve read.

R483, so what? I'd never seen it before, so I'm glad he posted it again.

Okay, calm down, sweetie at R485. I was just pointing it out.

The only real attraction in downtown Silver Spring is the AFI. Other than that, it's gotten more, um, "urban" in the last decade.

Silver Spring? Why are we talking about Silver Spring? No one who wants to live in DC wants to live there or even talk about that.

SS is sorta like radioactivity. It will take a 1000 years before it will be considered a desirable residential area. Unless you're a family.

Stevie Nicks wrote a song about Silver Spring.

Silver Spring is like in Parks and Recreation, how people from Eagleton talk about Pawnee. Bethesda people view Silver Spring like that. I doubt people who move to DC from away even think twice about Silver Spring, though.

Let's Chat About Sex in DC

R491, the Crew Club just reopened for the first time since March 2020. So, there’s that.

Where is the best place for a blowjob from a downlow congressional aide?

R491

Who has had sex with Jake Tapper?

Silver Spring is ghetto. The movie theater is ghetto .. sure there’s a few restaurants in their faux downtown .. not enough to live there though. Apartments on Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road are depressing as fuck. If you’re going to live in a suburb ..choose Arlington.

[quote] If you’re going to live in a suburb ..choose Arlington.

I thought Alexandria had more to do.

Who has the info on Jake Tapper’s extracurricular activities ?

I have travelled everywhere in the us my whole career for business and pleasure, and only 2 cities ignite an undercurrent of excitement that overwhelms all my senses. DC and LA. DC for the sense of world empire, scandal, politics and consulates, and LA for the same -Hollywood. NYC does come close to giving me that feeling.

DC feels imperial

[quote]DC for the sense of world empire, scandal, politics and consulates, and LA for the same -Hollywood. NYC does come close to giving me that feeling.

That's an interesting observation, R498, rather opposite of how I felt about DC, a city that was hard for me to like let alone love, but it's interesting to hear someone express it vividly.

R495, yeah…I didn’t want to say it but yeah. It’s gotten a lot worse in the past 10-15 years.

SS has always been, and will always be, down-at-the-heels shabby. If you really need a Maryland suburb (and you really don't), stick with Chevy Chase/Bethesda.

Thank you for all the responses about Silver Spring.

I had been there about 10-15 years ago for a meeting at Discovery and thought it was interesting that they were trying to make a suburban downtown happen.

Had not been back since which is why I was curious what had become of it.

Bethesda is booming right now. Alexandria is charming at least the old town. The outskirts are depressing as hell. Lots of old 60's apartment buildings.

I experience DC as a big small town and only occasionally remember that tourists actually spend their vacation time to come here.

People who live in affluent parts of NW DC are racist, entitled and unjust. How DARE they not live in SE DC, especially east of the Anacostia River?

[quote]Bethesda is booming right now. Alexandria is charming at least the old town.

Bethesda is the most charmless, heartless, soulless place, most whitewashed place. Everything in the "commercial core" looks likes an architect's drawing from decades past of a stretch of bland office buildings descending toward some vanishing point, the streets lined with fluffy little trees like the ones in old fashioned miniature sets for children, a few cafe tables and everywhere white people dressed much more nicely than they are in real life, moving about, doing important things, going important places.

The leafy, expensive parts of the residential neighborhoods are a brutal letdown; and most people are lucky to find a 3-bedroom 1300 square foot red brick house thrown up on the quick in the 1940s housing shortage for anything under $900,0000. But no matter how much you spend on a nicer street, everything about the place is off. It's the price they pay for white, additional fees may include lack of any architectural distinction, the absence of a central core of anything (East-West/Old Georgetown Road and Wisconsin Avenue, hub of the fucking universe), shitty shops, bland food geared at going away and birthday parties for office workers, and an utter lack of anything or anyone interesting in the whole damned place.

So would you ever live in Bethesda R507?

It's unclear from your post.

[QUOTE] How DARE they not live in SE DC

Apparently, you’ve never heard of Navy Yard, home of many luxury condo buildings and a stone’s throw away from the new and popular Wharf in SW.

There is SE DC west of the River, and SE DC east of the River

What's McLean like?

^^^Mostly rich. Langley High School in McLean was rumored to be an inspiration for the high school in 90210.

The student parking lot looks like a luxury car dealership compared to the teacher’s.

Home of humongous megachurch McClean Bible Church

[quote] Langley High School in McLean was rumored to be an inspiration for the high school in 90210.

Really? Wow, that's the first time I've ever heard this. I never would've imagined it was inspired by a school in VA.

[quote] McLean was rumored to be an inspiration for the high school in 90210.

As opposed to, I don't know, Beverly Hills High School?

I went to Langley HS and there is no way it inspired 90210. R512 is right about the parking lot but I’ve never heard that rumor about 90210….. it’s a school full of very boring white kids with parents who largely work in the government or politics… no scandals, quite sleepy….. The majority of my classmates all still live in NOVA. Zzzzzzz.

McLean is basically the mirror of Potomac, Maryland. (But not the version of Potomac depicted on Bravo.) It's a wealthy suburb where powerful/wealthy people raise their families. Lots of government types, ambassadors' and other dignitaries' families, lobbyists, executives, defense contractors et al. Some of these people live there specifically because the public schools are so good and well-networked that they don't have to send their kids to private schools (at least until prep high school in some cases). I would equate it to the area's Beverly Hills. It's not an exciting place, but an exclusive, high-rent residential area. Many of the houses in McClean are enormous and on very large properties.

Bethesda is smaller, less far out from the city, and it has its own culture in my experience—snooty liberal name droppers who prejudge everyone based on job titles, credentials, schools, etc., who truly have lived overprivileged, sheltered lives (despite the term 'privilege' being overused) and many of whom are bleeding hearts who believe their lives are dedicated to 'service' and helping others while they self-deal and self-serve and look down on people who don't run in influential circles. High-ranking government officials, nonprofit execs, etc.

McLean isn't necessarily conservative but it has more conservative, money- and power-motivated people who aren't deluded into thinking they're living lives of public service.

McLean is a "greed is good," "who do you know" neighborhood.

Bethesda is a "greed is corruptive," "who do you know and where do your kids go to school?" neighborhood.

[R516] There were a few suicides there about ten years ago. That area is so sterile and spread out and I imagine the parents being demanding but not always present or supportive. A generalization I know.

Marvel is much better.

Ethel Kennedy lives across the street from Langley HS.

I thought the difference is that Potomac is pretty Jewish and McLean pretty goyish, R517

There’s a big Mormon contingent in McLean/Great Falls.

Yes 522 Yes I grew up with a lot of mormons.

R518 I graduated back in the 90s (eldergay alert) so you’re probably right - it’s likely gotten more intense in recent years….

Actually R512, close but no cigar.

A little Googling reveals that Darren Star, the series creator grew up across the river in Potomac, Maryland and based the series on his experiences at Churchill High School. (And as per R521, Star is Jewish, the son of an orthodontist.)

He had briefly called the series Potomac 20854 before settling on the more iconic Beverly Hills

[quote] I have travelled everywhere in the us my whole career for business and pleasure, and only 2 cities ignite an undercurrent of excitement that overwhelms all my senses.

I get it, R498. In my younger days, late at night when I would come out of the Methodist Building after work I'd stare up at the Capitol Dome and it was inspiring, almost chilling. All lit up like some beacon of what we were all about or supposed to be about. It surprised me but even to this day I love taking routes wherever I'm going that take me past monuments or beautiful places in this city. I always told my cabbies to take Independence along the river. Despite the flaws everyone else sees I love my city.

The little triangular building upper left. Happy fun days for me.

Bethesda has some nice neighborhoods off Little Falls Parkway and Mass Ave. The downtown isn't charmless there are cafes along Cordell and Old Georgetown Road. I could see why someone would want to live there.

Interesting R524!

R524 has now thoroughly owned the know-it-all at R515.

McLean and Potomac are still basically mirrors of one another, across the river from one another. I didn't mention the high Jewish populations in Bethesda and Potomac because people are likely to interpret such mentions as antisemitic. It obviously impacts the culture somewhat, but the bottom line is that both are elite, exclusive areas where power is concentrated and incubated. The median household income in Potomac was $187,568 in 2017; $194,832 in McLean; $168,385 in Bethesda.

Bethesda: 86 % white, 2.7% black; median house cost $1,062,000.

McLean: 79% white, 15% Asian; $1,172,952

Potomac: 75% white, 16% Asian; $1,123,438 (only 4.6% of Potomac residents are black—the reality show is very misleading to those who assume the cast is typical of the area. It's nothing like Atlanta.)

Bethesda probably takes the cake as far as rich and powerful DCites, though. Journalists, authors, lawyers, lobbyists, politicians and lots of atheletes. Everyone there speaks as if they are 'woke' liberals, but in my very consistent experience, they are wealthy elitists and, not incidentally, extremely racially prejudiced. It is not by coincidence that they live in an 86% white community adjacent to DC, where 42% are white and 45% black, and within the greater DC metro area where 45 percent are white (and another 8% white Hispanic).

Bethesda has produced such luminaries as Mark Halperin and Brett Kavanaugh. Enough said. A lot of DLers would probably love Bethesda though because it's like the years after 1963 never happened. It's deeply conservative under the faux liberal facade. I will give it credit for being fairly walkable by the standards of American suburbs.

Kavanaugh IMO is typical of Bethesda. People think of Bethesda as largely Jewish, but religion has a lot less to do with the culture than the money and power and elitism game. Kavanaugh is a person who considers himself a good Catholic and a public servant. He went to Georgetown Prep (where he allegedly assaulted at least one girl, but that has no impact on his public service, does it?) and then Yale and Yale Law. And then he came back to DC to claim his power.

In today's dollars, Kavanaugh's private education costs $675,000.

It's a free country and anyone with money and powerful connections can get ahead!

Nearby Great Falls is lovely and has L'Auberge Chez Francois.

[quote]Bethesda has produced such luminaries as Mark Halperin and Brett Kavanaugh.

And Bill Barr lives in McLean.

Steve Case, Liz Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Bill Kristol, Oliver North, Colin Powell, Antonin Scalia did, Blackwater founder and Betsy DeVos brother Erik Prince. It's a bunch of real prizes behind those Beverly Hills-style gates.

McLean is weird though because it’s very unassuming. The town itself is nothing fancy or quaint or even memorable. The huge homes are behind gates and inaccessible. If you were to drive through McLean, you would just think it’s green and has some basic upper middle class homes - nothing special.

The short distance to DC (20 min with no traffic), the schools and the privacy are probably what appeal to the ultra wealthy? And it’s very goyish.

R426 That’s the Bethesda I grew up in, before they built the two bigger shopping complexes (one bordering Friendship Heights, and the other down the road near the Bethesda Metro) that people now think of as Bethesda. Old Bethesda has small ethnic restaurants and was a bit more of a “crunchy granola” place than a Richie Rich area. I don’t deny the point about Kavanaugh culture (there is a strong Catholic school network in Bethesda/DC that explains some of the closed-minded social groups), but there are lots of everyday bureaucrats there too, who are not the country club types.

What’s really funny are the battles between the different snooty social groups - people from Spring Valley or Cleveland Park one-upping Bethesdans, the Chevy Chase Club people arguing why they are old money and Congressional Country Club is new money, everyone fighting about which private schools are second-place behind St. Albans and NCS. There is a lot of insecurity among people who already have so much status, it’s really silly.

Bob Mould's Blowoff used to be fun. Maybe you were going to the wrong gay venues.

[quote] everyone fighting about which private schools are second-place behind St. Albans and NCS.

This topic would be of great interest for us here at the DL. We love talking about which schools are inferior to others, even when we have absolutely no connection to the institutions in question.

One of my grad school professors required us to attend a reading by her son, who had a new book out. (The professor was an author, her son was an author, and her husband was their agent. She lived in Cleveland Park; her husband lived in NYC and came to DC occasionally to visit.)

We went to Busboys and Poets for the reading. The son welcomed everyone and said he knew almost everyone in the packed room, identifying close childhood friends, friends of the family, teachers. My friends/classmates and I didn't know him, of course.

Since the room was friends and family, instead of reading from his new book, he decided to read something else: letters from St. Alban's prep school between his mother and the school. They went like this:

—Dear Mrs. X, your son is being suspended for breaking the rules. This is not good. [cue audience laughter]

—Dear Mrs. X, your son's behavioral problems have gotten worse. He doesn't listen to adults. He distracts everyone in class. He is violent. We can't let this go on.

—Dear Mrs. X, this is your son's final warning. He is in danger of losing his scholarship if he will not behave. Other students' work is suffering from the disruptions. You must intervene.

—Dear Mrs. X, thank you so much for your generous donation to St. Alban's. We appreciate your family's support of our community.

—Dear Mrs. X, we are pleased to inform you that your son has received a full scholarship for the coming school year. He is an excellent student and a pleasure to all.

[Audience roars with laughter.]

Confused R540

Why was he getting a scholarship if the family could afford to make a sizable donation?

R541 The scholarship comes with admission to the school, and it's an impressive credential that applies toward college admissions. (He went to Brown, of course, as did his mother.)

The point of the letters was to show that he was a bad kid, and his mother threw money around and the school administrators dropped to their knees and rewarded her son with a scholarship that's supposed to be based on merit because she paid a lot of money to the school to keep them from kicking her son out.

R542, that's why it's so frustrating when people go off about affirmative action as if a black, low income student who behaved in such a way or got bad grades, gets to just saunter into the Ivy League. That black kid is getting in with an A-/B+. Meanwhile, these poor-performing, rich, white kids get handed every opportunity when it is undeserved.

There are a lot more kids in these exclusive schools being allowed into prestigious universities with poor grades and poor attitudes because their parents throw money around than we realize.

R543 The whole point is that people like my professor and her children, people like the Trumps and Kushners, even The Sopranos showed how it's done, operate in an entirely separate world from the world of common people. The same rules do not apply to them, which is one key, and the other key is that they understand that and so they laugh at the rules that others abide by and throw money in people's faces while boldly rejecting the rules. That's even a lesson for their children. That's the whole reason why I was sickened by the spectacle my professor required us to attend. The room was riotous with laughter as her son nonchalantly read through the epic of his being a bad kid and getting ahead with his mother's money. She sat with us, and my friend and I were all looking at one another with disgust, and she just chuckled and beamed pride.

It's often a big difference between old money and new money. New money people flaunt their money while still trying really hard to prove themselves and show off that they can break the rules with their influence. Old money people casually mock people who pay any attention to rules. They live in a lawless world where a running punchline are the rules and consequences lesser people have to live with. Bethesda, McLean and Potomac are full of these people, and they are sprinkled throughout Northwest DC, as well.

It's interesting, I live in Kalorama TRIANGLE, and to the point of the person who argued thet Kalorama Triangle is not "real" Kalorama (by which he meant Kalorama-Sheridan, where the Trumps and Kushners, ambassadors and their families, other rich people live), even the parking rules are different for them. DC is broken down into parking zones. I live in zone 1, which is pretty large. Zone 2 is across Connecticut Ave, the exclusive part with the multimillion dollar homes. My parking permit allows me to park in zone 1. Zone 2 residents' permits allow them to park in zone 1 or zone 2. I believe it's the only zone that has the privilege of expanded territory—so the rich people can go wherever they want, but the less rich people are limited to their own area, per the city of the District of Columbia. Just one very small little signal of people's worths vs. worthlessness.

what’s the details on Jake Tapper’s player days in DC?

R544 One of the things that really bothered me about growing up in Bethesda, which the Bethesda-hating poster(s) above were getting at it, is that while that “I live by different rules” attitude is common anywhere with money, it’s stomach-turning to see people act that way when they spend their careers ostensibly helping people through public service jobs—whether career government, NGOs, politics, etc. Sitting at a dinner party and listening to someone talk about pulling strings to get their average kid into a hoity-toity school hits differently when you know this same person has a hand in deciding the amount of food stamps the government is going to be giving out, or whatever.

That being said, my experience is that most career government staff are not like this and don’t have this level of money, and are good people besides. But they likely aren’t able to afford to live in Bethesda today unless they marry someone with a higher-paying job.

That's interesting R542

If such things existed in Manhattan private schools, they were long gone by the time I got there--all scholarships went towards helping the school meet its diversity goal and there were all sorts of restrictions on those kids.

Fucked up kids whose parents donated were a thing, but increasingly less of one as competition heated up for the top half dozen or so schools and the admissions committee had to do the math on whether they could easily replace the family with another one with even more money.

The distinction you make between "old money" and "new money" is an odd DL thing--having grown up with both, I can assure you most of those traits you cite as an indication of one or the other are about personality. Yes, there are people who fit the stereotypes perfectly, but most do not.

"high amount of crime" not as bad as "good amount of crime" but such a dumbass way of saying "high rime rate". You must live in Woodbridge or maybe Ellicott City.

High rime rate you say? Sounds chilling.

I wonder if the professor described above was Judith Viorst....

And to the poster who keeps asking and asking and asking about Jake Tapper's sex life, I would guess that if you haven't received an answer by the 8th time of asking, none is likely to be forthcoming.

R544, in regards to parking: Where are people visiting supposed to park if you need a permit?

R551 Zoned parking areas allow for two hour parking for cars that aren't permitted for that zone. DC used to issue a glittery visitor permit (no cost) for residents that allows a guest car to park for up to 30 days. The city just changed the process so that now instead of giving a paper permit to a guest, you go online and enter information about how long the person will be staying, etc., and print a temporary permit. It's really pretty efficient.

Well, what if you meet someone at a bar and want to bring them home for the night and they follow you home in their car. Are you supposed to tell them to hold off on the fucking, I just need to fill out your information online so you can park?

R543 Zoned parking applies from 8am-5pm in most places. But good luck getting a parking space in my area after 5pm.

Not many people in DC drive to bars to pick people up. There's a subway, taxis, uber. Parking is always an issue. Even if you have a parking space at home, you don't have one near a bar in a busy area. It's not worth it for most people unless they are coming from way outside of the city, somewhere the Metro doesn't go and that woule be too far to take a taxi. I know someone who routinely Ubers from and back to Alexandria regularly. That's what people do nowadays.

I don’t get why anyone wants to live in a crowded place where Parking is not guaranteed and easy

D.C. is not a “crowded place.”

It definitely is crowded and congested. It’s one of the things people visiting say about it most frequently

[quote] D.C. is not a “crowded place.”

ROTFLMAO

R545 I don't know, but I'll but Jake got a lot of action at Camp Ramah in the Poconos.

Good point R559!!

Paul Rudd's character in Wet Hot American Summer was allegedly modeled on Tapper's days at Ramah

Zoned parking I am aware of actually goes to 6:30 pm. In my area it is until 8:30 pm. It usually tarts at 7 am.

Jake + Rudd are friends.

Bet they jew frat boy douche it up!

D.C. does not stand for Jake Tapper.

Get a thread.

Bethesda was always a nice bedroom community in my mind. Its "downtown" was never much to speak of. More like a long strip shopping center.

The last time I deliberately went to Bethesda was to one of the area Indy theaters. I took the metro and there was all this construction and so many detours between the metro and the theater I felt like I was on some urban wilderness hike just to get to the movies. Ridiculous. And this was in the hot summer. Then they made us pick our seats before going into the theater. I hate that. Never went back.

It is very DC to have a detailed conversation about zoned parking policies.

We like to be precise. How do you think we can cut all those checks you all love getting.

R563

Take Japper

Oh, enough already. Are you 12?

R568

You are easy to fuck with.

Fantastic thread. Omg.

A few years ago I was working a medical conference in DC and staying at a hotel near the White House. Being in a suit, I would go to the Hamilton on F street for a drink after work. There were always hot political staffers there. Out of 4 nights, I met 4 guys. I only hooked up with one of them but I was amazed at the selection. Yum.

[Quote]I loved my time there, but we grew tired of city life and now live in a rural animal with our dogs.

R28 Is it a sheep, a cow or just a small chicken condo?

Its the only place that you’ll see an 18-year-old girl wearing pearls and & tweed jacket

Bob Mould's Blowoff parties used to be fun. Do they still go on?

I lived in the area for six years starting in 1998 and even worked in Dupont Circle. At the time, being young and idealistic myself, I did enjoy it. There are certainly self-important VIP types running around the area. But, I enjoyed the proximity to the National Gallery and there were some lovely restaurants. I met some very interesting people. It can play itself out quickly, it's really just a bunch of neighborhoods linked by the metro. The beltway and 66 are nightmares. I liked Takoma Park a lot, it was near the red line and a fun little town. I was not a fan in general of northern VA, although Old Town Alexandria is charming. Once the novelty wore off it was a place like any other. Parts of D.C. are really quite grim, depends where you're venturing. I do remember going to the White House to look at their Christmas Tree display, that was magical. Most people I knew lived in VA or MD.

Boring yawn

The downtown has all the excitement of an office park.

Where do you live, R576?

Why do all these hot DC men marry ugly women?

There are only ugly women here, R579.

The women are absolutely butt ugly.

They’re a revolting combination of plain looking and professionally ambitious.

In fact, a lot like the men.

Not true, R583. D.C. is one of the gayest cities in the country and is full of hot gays.

You might want to look beyond the Legislative Assistants populating Capitol Hill.

I see many hot girls in my walks about town...they don't wear much makeup here. The suburbs on the other hand lots of makeup

R133 ha that happened to me as well when I was there for work and went out one evening and stopped at Townhouse. It was bizarre.

R577 True .. Total dullsville

A city of circles (DuPont, Logan) made for squares (the people).

Where do you live, R588?

What fucking difference does it make, R589? He and this old but fitting saw) speak the truth.

Do you begin every argument, like a 6-year-old child, with, "Well, it's better than yours! So there!"?

Not at all, R590. I was just curious.

Very interesting though that you won’t answer the question.

I'm R590, but im not R588 the circles and squares poster.

It's not interesting at all where someone who uses an expression heard often enough in DC lives or has lived when that's the extent of his post.

It doesn't fucking matter. When someone trots out the JFK line about DC being a city of southern efficiency and northern charm, does that really excite your intellectual curiosity as to their own geographic story? I hope not.

As for me, I lived in DC for 30+ years and know it well but don't have much good to say for the place.

Get a dog

[quote] As for me, I lived in DC for 30+ years

It shows, square.

I lived in NW DC (on the red line) for a year. Overall, I enjoyed my time there. One thing I regret not doing is going to see oral arguments in front of the SCOTUS. Happens in May, IIRC.

I had no car and the Metro was great. Metro does not go to Georgetown, however.

My 2 favorite neighborhoods were Dupont Circle and Georgetown.

Good food, nice food shops, good coffee. Nice architecture. It's not an ugly city.

There's a regular free shuttle that goes to Georgetown (DC Circulator) and there is a stop 2 or 3 blocks from Dupont.

Well, no one said there was no way to get there, R596. Just that the Metro doesn’t have a Georgetown station (residents are against it, is what I’ve always heard).

I think residents believed the lack of access to public transportation would keep out the riffraff, but the riffraff can--and do--always find their way to the neighborhood.

Georgetown got kind of trashy and abandoned-looking during the pandemic.

I’ve always liked the architecture of DC especially NW section and Georgetown. It’s a great weekend city I think. Like Philly but more upscale. Living there seems like city living for southerners. I would be bored and stifled.