The 13 Best Things About Living in the District

Photo by PoPville flickr user ep_jhu

Now I hate when people tell others to move to the suburbs if they don’t like something about living in DC but if you don’t enjoy at least a few of the following things below, it’s not time to move to the suburbs, it’s time to move to a completely new city. I kicked a box of wine by myself coming up with this list:

13. The Mall and Monuments – an easy one but if you haven’t been in a while you forget just how beautiful they really are.
12. Admittedly, not for my conservative cousins but despite being known for the stalemate often seen in Congress with national politics – our local politics are pretty progressive.
11. Row Houses – we have some damn beautiful row house lined streets.
10. Walkability – You can, particularly when the weather gets nicer, walk end to end. Pretty far anyway.
9. History – big props to the Cultural Tourism folks and their African American Heritage Trail as well all the other great history everywhere you turn.
8. Libraries – most of our neighborhood libraries now kick ass. Not to mention the Library of Congress.
7. The 9:30 Club – best small(ish) live performance spot I’ve ever been to.
6. Weather – we can complain a lot but taking a step back overall we have a pretty moderate climate – we get some snow but not too much and our Autumns and Springs are among the best in the world.
5. The Nationals – finally a sports team that can unite nearly the entire District as we saw in 2012 – just wait till this year.
4. The Cherry Blossoms blooming – if you don’t take at least one second to admire them (even just regular blooming trees in our neighborhoods) then I’m sorry – you have no soul.
3. Our Museums – and many of them are free which is really an amazing thing when you drop $30 or more in other cities.
2. Our Revival – the District was devastated after the riots and fires of ’68. To live here now while our avenues get reborn is seriously an amazing thing to witness and be a part of.
1. The People – Something we can take far too easily for granted – DC is filled with some of the smartest and most passionate people in the country. Our conversations are not dull. You can meet people knowledgeable about pretty much anything and everything. As one who comes from a long line of folks who like to bullshit, argue and debate – it makes for good times.