Tell me about living in Washington, DC

In My Humble Opinion
1

Long story short, I went there for three days last week on business and absolutely fell in love with Washington, DC. I might have a job prospect there, and I’m within driving distance, so I’ll go again and again for visits, but the idea of living there was positively entertaining.

Really, there’s not much of a reason NOT to move there, but I’d like to hear about living there from someone who does live there. Hallboy will be entering high school next year, so a good public high school is necessary, and I’d like to live IN DC if at all possible (and not drive a hour to work every day). Access to the public transportation would be nice, but not necessary. What about rental places (prefer a house, but could work with an apartment)?

Anyone know of a salary/cost of living comparison site?

2

The Washington area is really expensive, and traffic is horrible. And the public transit system is crumbling due to inadequate funding.

3

What’s your budget? You’d need to balance that against what’s available, and then balance that against how much you value your safety if you plan on living downtown. I’d recommend staying as far away from the area as possible. Don’t move here unless you have to. I don’t live or work in downtown, and I can’t wait to get out of the area.

It’s a pretty bad morning here right now with freezing rain on the roads, so I, for one, am in a less-than-stellar mood, so weigh my advice accordingly.

4

I recommend living in the area served by **Wootton High School ** in Montgomery Co. MD. It’s one of the best public high schools in the country.
The school is about 20 miles from the White house, as the crow flies, so it’s only an hour commute away.
Yes, it’s an EXPENSIVE place to live. Traffic really does suck. The transit system may be getting old, but it’s there. And access to it isn’t just nice. It IS necessary.

5

I don’t think you’re going to find a house in a decent neighborhood renting for less than $1500.

6

Before I say this, please be assured that I’m not some lily-livered prefab mansion-dweller from the exurbs who’s allergic to black people…I’ve lived in the District and live in a close-in suburb now.

DC public schools are horrible. Don’t even think about sending your kid there.

Rent will be really expensive; far more expensive than living in a bars-on-the-windows neighborhood should be. If you’re from Harrisburg, you might be used to this, anyway.

The infrastructure is crumbling, services are nearly non-existent, and you have no representation in Congress, who, by the way, controls the purse strings in a most unpleasant manner.

Having said that, the architecture is cool even in the worst neighborhoods, there’s cultural diversity and nightlife, and it’s cool to be able go to the National this or that.

You should be able to find that pays well, but commuting can be a nightmare.

7

Echoing:

  1. Housing is very expensive, whether you live in the city or in the suburbs.
  2. Commuting is difficult. If you live in the city, you have to live withing walking distance of a Metro (subway) station. Buses are not reliable, especially in bad weather (I’ve waited more than an hour for a bus, only for the driver of the eventual bus to “not see me” and just whiz by on at least four occasions). In bad weather, the Metro will be packed. Plan on not ever being on time for anything that happens first thing in the morning or right after work.
  3. At least it’s not as expensive and hard to get around as New York or San Francisco.
  4. The cultural life, while better than a lot of places, is also not as good as New York or San Francisco.
  5. Drivers are mean, inconsiderate, and crazy.
  6. The place is full of navy and charcoal grey besuited workaholics who push the expectations of how much of your day should be given over to your employer.
8

Boy is that ever true!

Picture, if you will, a destination that is brim-full of lawyers and bosses, people that are used to giving orders and having their way. Then picture having to commute, shop and live around them. It’s inescapable; you can’t swing a dead cat in this town without hitting at least two or three self-important schmucks who are defined by their work.

9

It maybe an hour on a normal day, but on a day like today I think my wife is still trying to make it to work, and she’s in Bethesda. While Wootton maybe a good school there are others in the Montgomery County system that are just as good, at least that’s what I’m told I didn’t go to school here.

I don’t know about busses, but the MARC trains usually run close to on time. I take them every day for the most part. They run right into DC and Union Station so you can get the Metro. I don’t take the Metro so I don’t know much about it, and never take the bus.

I half like living here and half hate it. I like all the different places and things there are to do. I hate the people though, at least while driving. I get stressed out easy with all the crazy drivers around here, though being from PA you probably know about it.

I don’t think I’d live in the city itself, way too many people for me. I do like living in Gaithersburg though, and for the most part don’t have too much problems with traffic, except on days like today when it’s snowing.

10

That sums up my memories about growing up there.

And yes, some other Montgomery Co schools are good, but they’re not Wootton. Just showing a little belated school spirit here.

11

Geez, guys, it’s not that bad. Though I may be biased due to my experiences under Hizzoner Mayor-for-Life Berry, excepting the occasional scandals (a city employee recently stole million in taxpayer dollars), day-to-day life in DC works just fine, with the huge exception of the schools, which continue to be a disaster. If at all possible you’ll want to send kids to a private school.

I’ve got to take exception to the characterization of services being “nearly non-existent.” DC has public pools in every neighborhood, there’s a handy leaf pickup service in the fall/winter (I just raked my leaves to the curb this weekend), I had a timely response to a complaint about dangerous tree branches on city property near my house, there’s five public golf courses in the city, the snow plow services have improved in recent years to be just fine, trash pickups have been on-time for neigh 11 years now, and so on and so on. Yeah, there’s long lines at the DMV, which puts DC in line with the headaches of virtually every other densely populated city in the country. Whoop-dee doo.

Currently, an average two bedroom apartment in a good neighborhood will run in the territory of $2,500. If you want suggestions on what are good neighborhoods, just ask.

Random thoughts: Property taxes are very low if you buy a place, but income taxes are fairly high. Social life might not be the equal of Manhattan, but there’s a hell of a lot to do here, and you have to be a real whiner to complain about it. Crime continues to be a concern for many parts of the city, and it is probably on the rise over the last year or two, but most people have no need to ever go into the really bad parts of town. Commute times within the city vary widely: Metro is convenient but can get awfully crowded. I drive about 2 or 3 miles through the city to work every day and just because of where I live and where I work, I never encounter any traffic delays. Commute times outside of DC? All bets are off.

I like living in DC and would consider moving over to Virginia to be a total nightmare. I’d rather leave the area altogether than live in Northern Virginia. YMMV. There’s a fair amount of middle-class development going on in Prince George’s County just to the east of DC, but parts of PG are just as bad as the worst parts of DC, and I have no idea what the schools are like.

If you have any specific questions, just post them.

12

Oh, and in terms of cost comparison, here’s a link. Basically $83k is needed in DC to live like $60k in income in York, PA. (I didn’t see a comparison to Harrisburg.)

13

I love living in Northern Virginia, especially now that my employer has moved across the river, but commuting to Foggy Bottom from Arlington by Metro wasn’t any more difficult than commuting within D.C.

14

You’ve got a kid in high school, so, IMO, you don’t want to live IN DC. The schools in the surrounding counties are excellent and is the main reason I still live in the area (Fairfax county). Some say the DC schools “aren’t so bad”. This is daming with faint praise when some of the best school in the country are right across the city border. I used to live in the city, and really like it there - just not an option when I started to reproduce.

Anyway you slice it, it is somewhat expensive to live here, but not horrible. If you want to avoid traffic and live close to work - ya gotta pay. Metro lines are limited and you have to pay to be near one. But opportunity abounds, especially in the slightly less fashionable areas.

The weather sucks … the worst of slush and freezing rain in the winter, the worst of heat and humidity in the summer. This is the real reason to avoid DC in my opinion.

That was petty negative, so a little positive even though you must have seen something positive to make you consider moving here.

  1. The schools, like I said.
  2. Museums, plays, theatre etc. There’s a lot of money in the area and that attacts the arts - I just don’t use them much myself.
  3. Food … any type, any nationality, any time. I like food, mmmm. And I like that my kids are exposed to all the foods of the world right here and, for that matter, a huge diversity of people too.
15

I agree the cultural opportunities are plentiful. It’s mostly that a lot of the people suck. :wink:

16

Huh. I really like living in the DC area. I’m surprised at the responses above.

When we arrived in DC, we first lived in Cleveland Park, which is along the red line in NW DC. The impression I get from colleagues who live in that area is that the public schools are OK, but perhaps not stellar. We also lived in Adams Morgan for a couple of years, which I just loved, but when QKid#1 came along we moved to the close-in MD suburbs (inside the beltway). We’re in an excellent school district, just under a mile from a Metro station, and fairly close to restaurants, book stores, etc. DC traffic doesn’t bother me, but then again, I’m planning to head to campus today around noon and come home again at about 3:45, so I almost never drive during rush hour. I love having things like the Smithsonian and the Mall monuments so close by. We visit at least one museum every month, and there are lots of interesting things going on on the Mall during the summer. DC is also a great place to leave for day or weekend trips - Shenandoah, Annapolis, Charlottesville, Baltimore, the beach, etc. (I grew up in the Midwest - being able to drive to another city in an hour or two is pretty darn exciting.) Oh, and I think the weather here is great, but the previous two places I lived were Chicago and Singapore, so my perspective may be a bit skewed.

Whether or not a move to DC is a good call depends a lot on what you can afford in terms of housing. Check out the apartment and real estate ads in the Post.

17

I also love the DC area; however, I’m in a very different situation as the OP, as I am single, can have roommates to defray the cost of rent, and do not have children. Honestly, with a child involved, the DC suburbs can be an amazing place to raise a family. There’s some really safe areas, and tons of cultural and education opportunities involved. However, the suburbs are extremely expensive. I work in Bethesda, where rent for just a small condo is easily $2000/month.

Also, I echo the sentiments to avoid public school, and private schools here, while very prestigious and will practically guarantee your child a ticket into the Ivy League of his choice, are also very expensive (hey, pay for what you get); if I had to estimate, I’d say on the order of $20,000/yr.

So your options in DC are to live dangerously for cheap, or well for mucho dinero. But it’s still a pretty cool place, although no NYC or SF, as mentioned above.

Gestalt.

18

. . . except for PG County, which is almost as bad as DC.

19

I like living here, but I’m used to it. Public transport isn’t nearly as bad as some people here make it to be, but it’s getting worse. If you don’t have kids, you don’t have to worry about schools. If you do, live in Maryland or look into private school. There are a lot of self important schmucks here, but there are also a lot of intelligent fascinating people. You’ll meet people from all over the world. Summer and winter can be miserable, but spring and fall are lovely. The museums are free, for the most part. It is expensive. Crime isn’t as bad as some people make it out to be, but it’s something to be aware of.

20

Living in DC itself isn’t bad. The services are alright. I have to agree with the posters who have said that the schools are horrible. One of the things that will eventually force me out of the city will be having children who are school aged. Living here isn’t cheap by any definition of the word. Commute times by car in the city can vary. I work in Alexandria and it takes me longer to get to 395 than it does to get from there to my office in Alexandria.

I’m really not sure what the other posters are complaining about regarding the “self important” jerks. I run into most of those when I leave the city and go to the suburbs. The overall area including the suburbs is incredibly diverse.