| My reply (I've lived in and next to DC for 8 years): I like a lot about DC, but my thoughts on why I'm moving away within a year: Vastly inflated real estate prices. Silicon Valley prices but with god-awful weather. (Look here http://weather-explorer.com/compare?USAF=745090&WBAN=23244&U...)
The house price to median annual income exceeds a factor of 5 in any neighborhood without an hour plus commute. The coolest place to live is DC, but it has an AWFUL, CORRUPT, INCOMPETENT city government and horrifically bad public schools. Violent crime is a problem too, but the residents don't like to admit it. My good friend was shot in the back walking through his neighborhood. He didn't die, so it didn't even make the news. The police, naturally, never caught the perpetrator. He is currently walking around DC and likely feeling very empowered to commit more violence. My other buddy has been mugged 3 times at gunpoint. He moved to Maryland. My brother's wife was punched in the face and had her purse snatched. As she lay on the ground sobbing, the local racist asshole kids crowded around her laughing and calling her a "stupid white bitch." She had a broken jaw and it took 15 minutes for someone to actually help. This was the "up and coming" neighborhood of Columbia Heights. The suburbs here are AWFUL. Overpriced, congested on all days, even weekends. The culture in the suburbs is not like in other places I've lived. Unlike in the city of DC, the people in the suburbs here are rude and keep to themselves. Its a notoriously hard place to meet people. Perhaps they are all angry and miserable because of the traffic, which is horrific. Expect an hour plus commute each way. Or you can take the Metro. The Metro is awesome, until you factor in the fact that the union here prioritizes employees benefits and pay over the integrity of the system. I won't even go into how this contributes to the decay of the infrastructure, but trust me when I say that if you bring a person in a wheelchair to DC, do not count on any elevator at the metro stations actually being operational. Also, expect significant delays one day out of 5. Your developers will be constantly being tempted with high-paying job offers by government consulting gigs. Due to the extremely high cost of living, they might take it. The fact that these jobs are awful, mind-numbing bullshit with strict 9 to 5 schedules doesn't mean anything when they have a kid on the way and can't afford the rent in Arlington. That being said, I do love the tech community here. It is my refuge. The only downfall is you run into a lot of so-called developers who are just .NET recipe corporate drones who can't do FizzBuzz when you interview them. But then you meet the brilliant amazing but bored kid leaving a consulting firm.... and all is salvaged.... But I can't handle the rest of it. I'm done. Fuck DC. |
When did this happen to your friends? I've been living here for about 2 years now, and thankfully nothing of the sort has happened yet.