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I live about 35 minutes west of DC. If I were single and a 30-somthing, there are definitely worse places to spend 2 years of life. The girl to guy ratio in DC is WAY different that in small ski towns. Lots of fun clubs and stuff to do. I say go for it!
Wait the options are DC and Ft. Fun?
I had no idea I live in such a hellhole.
Excepting the very notable lack of outdoor recreation other than bouldering in Carderock or paddling the Potomac around Great Falls this place is easily the best US city I've spent time in. Great food, fun neighborhoods, everything is close, great public transportation, and many many many hot women... unless you like the inflated Bimbo type like STFU.
Don't listen to Hugh - he's a jaded NoVa escapee, and even that area has improved, especially the Wilson Blvd. corridor. Too far away from AU, tho - stay within the District and you'll be fine. If you're going to AU (main campus?) I'd live in Cleveland Park if you can find something affordable. It's considered one of the "safest" neighborhoods so crawling with single women between 25 and 35. Good inexpensive restaurants (expensive ones too) and some fun bars/pool halls. Metro is right there and will take you anywhere you want to go, including the airport -- DCA now and soon IAD.
It's a very green city with tons of parks, trees, etc. No buildings taller than 14 floors by code, so no urban canyon feeling. Good music scene too.
Summer and Winter suck for the reasons already stated. Spring and especially Fall are awesome weather-wise. Crime is the lowest it's ever been. More and more bike lanes are being installed on the roads. Rock Creek Park is an awesome oasis in the middle of the city, and a short walk/ride downhill from Cleveland Park. No MTB trails, however, since it's a NPS park.
Other than that Ms. Lincoln how was the play? Yeah, sorry, forgot that Old Town Alex doesn't measure up to the "charms" of the "real" city.... it's just walkable and quasi-charming but only 5 starbucks and Paneras.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tippster
By "soon" to Dulles Tipp means 2018... so with any luck by the time OPs up and gone (improvements in DC- other than urban gentrification - take decades). Even by the slow and shitty standards of US public works DCs special.
I'd take an city in the western US (even Spokane) before DC. And most city's on the East Coast. But I'm jaded and not married with kids.
Its a matter of income potential. If I stay here, it stays really low. If I leave, it goes way the fuck up. If I get a Masters, it goes up.Quote:
Originally Posted by shroom
The whole DC move is still contingent upon actually getting accepted. I'm thinking this is the program I want to do though.
At the moment, options are something like CSU/Ft. Collins, American/DC, move to Denver/Boulder, SLC, stay put where I am, or maybe apply to a different program.
I'm pretty burnt out on ski town life and endless winters, so while I will probably miss it some, I am ready to get the fuck out of dodge for a while.
If its two years I'd go to the best grad school you can for what you want to do. If American is that, DC is a good place to live.
You'll find rewarding things in every city if you go in with the intention of making the best of it, and changing your expectations from a CO ski town. Two years of some of the best ethnic food you'll ever eat, two years of exploring the surrounding area(Chesapeake Bay, Shennandoah), and a vibrant young city w a great music scene.
Cons are its expensive, hot and humid, and the skiing is bad.
Pros are biking options outside of town(mountain) and lots of ways to escape the city by road bike. Also food, music, and interesting people from all over the world.
And Trippster lives there..Quote:
Originally Posted by Tippster
Do. Not.
found the parks near and around falls church to have some great mtn biking, closest skiing would be at whitetail ski resort in hagerstown, md., fun place with 1000 vert........great mtn biking there also. bike paths in and around DC were fun and functional too for road biking.
Biking, especially mountain biking, trumps skiing at this point in my life. So I'm glad to hear that there is some there. I was thinking if I went I'd have to sell my MTB and get a roadie.
bullshit. but keep spinning. like the "vibrant young city". what city isn't other than buffalo?Quote:
Originally Posted by CantDog
check with shops for a race series if you're into that too. some would extend into the twilight hours so have your lights ready.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crapshoot
Bouldering at Carderock. Lulz.
Were you not able to get laid in DC? Is that why you're so bitter?Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
um, spokane?Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
Hey, in a week of afterwork nights you'll have every move memorized. And if you get really bored you can go find some small cliff overgrown with poison ivy and clean it to repeat some 30' route thats been done dozens of times.Quote:
Originally Posted by concretejungle
meh, as for road biking. if flattish fields are your thing, there's tons.
Is DC the only place you were ever able to get laid? Is that why you are so keen on it? Jesus man, most any city has tons of women now. And foodie-ism has taken over the nation (or at least the same yuppie city nation).Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianH
Sure, you can endure DC if you want to go to grad school. Maybe I don't understand why you'd want to go AU unless you want to get stuck in a DC-ish existance.
Wait...What??Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
Hugh - The guy wants to go to DC for his Master's degree. Maybe he wants to be one of the overcredentialed. I've never lived in DC but have been there a bunch of times over the past fifteen years. It's really a pretty good place to be, all things considered. Besides, if it's only two years and he's in school, school will be the primary focus with plenty of things to occupy whatever little free time he might have. Cut him a break.
I like Adams Morgan area but I also like Georgetown. But that's as a visitor who's not there for more than a few days. I was just there last week and it was great weather, great women, and good times. While I'm not really up to speed with the music scene, we went to Madam's Organ last Thursday and they had a terrific band. Lots of good restaurants and plenty of history and museums to explore. I may not want to live there but could for a couple of years if my intent was the same as the OP. DC isn't hell...and neither is Spokane (check my location).
I think he and stfu had their final breakup in DC. The two of them are comical.Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianH
Wow, you guys have the wrong impression.... You're east coasters and have probably never even been here.Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
it'd be nice if I were rich living in the sweet pad in the country with the ability to fuck off to places at the beach or the mountains whenever the fuck I want.Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
comical is the people on a ski website saying DCs "not that bad". and the usual parachute in for a couple days "oh, it's nice". well most anywheres nice. Idiots.
Carderock Jeff.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
Bitter much?Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
just stating the truth that it can be a nice place to live if you are wealthy; it's a shitty city - and life - if you aren't. This isn't like all citys. But hey, it's time for another person on an expense account business trip to the city to chime in and say its awesome! You can bike on the C&O! Woohoo 100+ miles of the flattest route ever!Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldMember
Geoff was a cool guy and a fine antidote to that city. Interesting stories.
"You're off route. That hold's for Monkey Chunder, 5.11."Quote:
Originally Posted by concretejungle
That Carderock Jeff?
He wasn't hot enough for you? Or were you one of those tangled mess of anchors just bought from REI climbers?Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianH
I lived there for m mid 20's and I was no means rich (see the living in the Getty thread). I loved tha place, and I still do. You don't have to be rich to have a good time, or to find fun outdoorsy stuff around there. Is it like living out west? No. But nowhere in the world is really the same. For someone looking for something different than the mountain town lifestyle, DC is a great place to spend a few years.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
All this talk makes me think I need to schedule another trip out there ASAP.
PS - there's nothing quite like riding 60 miles of flat on the C and O, then having to climb up into Georgetown at the end.
I'm sorry. Most of the people I know were glad of the experience living there but few loved the place and none would move back. YMMV, and clearly it does, but you are fucking high if there's lots of cool outdoorsy stuff near the city. What? Where? Carderock, Great Falls, blah blah blah are all fun-ish for afterwork or something but they are nothing to write about. Most cities have something outdoorsy nearish. Unless it's Ft. Wayne Indiana.Quote:
Originally Posted by Phildo_Baggins
I define it pretty loosely more like fun stuff to do while outside. I don't climb, So I can't comment on that, but I think pretty much every weekend it was nice I found myself outside most of the day whether it was biking on road or dirt, getting onto a river somewhere or even just going for a run around the Mall and the monuments. It really is just what you make of it, and ultimately I did leave so I could ski more. Once I'm old and can't ski as much I could totally see myself living back there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
The program is a MS in Sustainable Management. Combines aspects of MBA program with a focus on one 3 areas, policy, business, environmental science. Policy is the track I'm looking at. Which makes DC the place to be, as far as I can tell.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarcusBrody
DC is the place to come to further your paper pushing skills.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crapshoot
I almost moved to DC about 9 years ago for that "two years and out" thing. I figured it would have been a nice urban thing and I could ski in Europe. It would have meant a nice bump in $$, but I went there for a temporary assignment to check the job out and I realized that working for a political appointee would have been the worst kind of hell. Outside of work, I enjoyed the town for its urbanity. I'm from the sticks.
Call it what you want, but I would like to get a job that requires more use of my brain than my back. Yea, I can sling pizza or booze, build houses, or paint, or shovel snow and make some money living here, but I don't want to do those things. And I've done the 100 days of skiing a season for a few seasons, I know what that shit is all about. I'm over it. I'm sick of freezing my fucking ass off 9 months of the year.Quote:
Originally Posted by skiballs
The good thing about the program I'm interested in is that it is in the b-school, which will give me some skills to use even if I don't go with the sustainability part of it. But that part of it is growing too.
Anyway, that part isn't what I'm asking about. So for reasons to live there, we've got women, culture, the educational piece, good food (if not the best). for negatives we've got heat/humidity, crummy winters, expensive, not much in the way of skiing (which I knew), and less than ideal access to recreational opportunities.
Did I miss anything? Is there anything else to add to the list?
Medicinal marijuana?
Funny sidebar, I was in Ft. Wayne recently for a baptism - quick overnight trip. Shoot me in the face if I ever had to live there. I stood at the 'crossroads of America' and no shit I could see for miles in all 4 directions. That and it was pervasively bleak, ugh, no thanks. Oh, and to the thread, pretty much everything Hugh has said is spot on in my experience. I'm that dickbag that blows in for a conference a couple times a year and has fun on the company dime then moves on. Every time I've had to be there for more than a week I've wanted to scratch my eyeballs out. The political lens that everything in town is viewed through is exhausting, and so are the hangers on. My law school buddies that went there right out of graduation couldn't wait to move. If working closely with a governmental agency is your thing it's gotta be nirvana.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh Conway
A huge plus.Quote:
Originally Posted by Phildo_Baggins
"Cool outdoorsy stuff nearby" is maybe 20% of the grade a city gets. What makes a city is the city, not the mountains out back or the singletrack in the burbs, or the suburban sprawl that surrounds everything these days. It's the city as an entity, as a place in its own right, that matters to me. And on that score, as a city, DC is fine with me.
They have Medicinal marijuana in DC? How sick do you have to be? Like, cancer sick, or, 22 year old hippie bad back sick?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phildo_Baggins
Speaking of which, when does that start in MD. Do you have a good doctor yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
It'll become law tomorrow when O'Malley signs it. How it will actually work is a good question, I don't really understand it. Linkie. My own doc is in DC and I don't know if he'd be able to write a scrip for Maryland. I know he can't do it for me for DC since I'm a Maryland resident. I don't know if he'd do it even if he could, he's kinda old school. It'll be something to figure out I guess.Quote:
Originally Posted by skiballs
Fucking horrendous traffic and a quaint street naming system that makes G St. and 6th Ave. four different intersections.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crapshoot
Oh, I didn't know we could just ignore the 5 million people in the surrounding sprawl. It's not a crappy place to spend two years but I think the good points and bad points have been covered. I also left a while ago so I'll still bemoan the gentrification. Ah, crack and car jackings, I'm getting all misty eyed.Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
If you live in the right places in NYC, that's easy to do, if you don't drive.Quote:
Originally Posted by concretejungle