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Washington D.C.?
Locust76
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
We live in Germany. My fiancee has been on the lookout for an internship in the States and she's gotten an email from a language school in Washington D.C. saying that they'll take her.
My question is this: I've heard that apart from the touristy parts, Washington D.C. is a ghetto. Is this true? What kind of standard of living/cost of living can a married couple expect? We'd be looking at spending ~4 months there.
Visas are no problem (I'm a U.S. Citizen, we'll be married).
My question is this: I've heard that apart from the touristy parts, Washington D.C. is a ghetto. Is this true? What kind of standard of living/cost of living can a married couple expect? We'd be looking at spending ~4 months there.
Visas are no problem (I'm a U.S. Citizen, we'll be married).
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Also, DC and the surrounding area is expensive as hell. If it's not expensive it's the damn hood.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
Simplest answer to your question, though, is to research northern Virginia. The Alexandria area is pretty nice, and is relatively close to metro stops and whatnot for commuting in. I'm looking to move into DC in the next few months, and unless you're really able to discern what parts of DC are safe and what aren't, it's a safer bet to just live a little further away.
I can only give you a quick comparison of what was my life in VA.
I got out of the military, and rented a townhouse (1700 sqft) in Ashburn for $1600 a month. My commute to work (Crystal City, just over the river from DC, near the Pentagon) was 1:20 at best, and cost me about $2 each way in tolls.
In order to buy that townhome it would have cost us $425,000-$475,000.
I moved to Colorado. Same job, same salary, 20 min commute, and I just bought a 4000+ sqft home on 3 acres for $320K.
So by that comparison, the DC metro area is about the most expensive place you could choose to live for 4 months, with maybe SanFran beating it out.
Depending on where your fiancee is interning she may be able to use the metro instead of having to drive to work, which would cut down on your transportation costs, but you can't rely on that - there are large segments of the DC area that are not served by metro.
Note that the city proper often gets pretty dead at night, since a large portion of the workforce commutes from Maryland and Virginia. Arlington and Georgetown both have decent nightlife scenes, though.
Also, while you're there, take some time to actually do the touristy stuff - the national mall and all the monuments are actually really cool.
Burgers so could you'll cream your pants.
San Francisco, Los Angeles (where I am now), and New York are all more expensive than DC, and Boston, Seattle, and Chicago might be as well (with probably another couple of cities I can't think of off the top of my head).
You'll be paying a lot, and feeling it, but you could be way worse off, particularly since there still are DC suburbs that aren't too expensive or far away. Ashburn - as Tachyon mentioned, but which I did not quote - is a pretty considerable hike. However, if you live in Ashburn you should be close to the Old Dominion Brewery, which is a hell of an incentive. Man do I miss that place.
So yeah, pretty pricey.
But I wouldn't be too worried about crime if you live in northern Virginia (which I would recommend). I've been here nearly three years now and have never had a problem.
In Baltimore, unless you're a black male involved in drugs, you're not going to get shot. Well, unless you happen to live next door to young black males who are involved in drugs and you leave your doors unlocked.
DC is similar, although there's a bit more "money crimes" involved such as burglaries and the like. But murder should be the least of your worries. Murder, no matter where you live, is almost always related to people who know each other. A friend of a friend who did something wrong, or domestic violence, or a drug deal or other black market trade gone wrong. One side kills the other, friends retaliate, and so on. Guns make it easy, but they don't have much influence on the underlying relationships and problems.
Granted, violence and shootings aren't what necessarily defines "ghetto," but, uh, most realtors or apt. search places won't even show places in bad neighborhoods. Of course, it also depends on who is telling you it's ghetto.
yeah stick to northern VA. it's much nicer than some parts of MD (Prince George's County) around DC.
I live in Columbia, MD. It takes me about an hour to get to DC on weekdays during rush hour. If you don't mind a commute Columbia is a hell of a town. I think it ranked #4 in the top 100 cities in the USA on like CNN.com or something. All I know is everything is within minutes of my apartment.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
Pretty much anywhere in the DC area is going to be not cheap, but certain areas are less expensive, but usually for a reason. I lived in Silver Spring, MD with a roommate for about a year and it was a decent price and great location (~$1300 for a 2 bedroom, utilities included), just outside of the city, and in walking distance of the metro and the downtown area.
I currently live in Takoma, a neighborhood of DC. I wouldn't call DC as a whole ghetto. There are parts, just like any city, that I wouldn't ever be caught wandering around at 2am, but there are other parts that I've walked alone around 4am and never had issues. Columbia Heights and Mt. Pleasant are great mid-range areas to live in, as renters, it might be too pricey as buyers though. The more expensive, nicer areas like Georgetown and Dupont will put a major dent in the income, but would be amazing places to live.
tl;dr Check out Northern VA if you don't mind long commutes, great for families etc. MD sucks(j/k)! DC had a variety of great and not so great places to live.
edit: Hey Nate .... Takoma like Takoma Park?
Where did you go to high school? I graduated from Oakton in 97, my wife from South Lakes the same year.
As far as where you should live - that's up to you and your income level. You can comfortably live in Arlington if you make $75,000+ and it comes with the advantages of being right next to the District, right on a metro line, it's relatively crime free and its well run and clean. Rents range from $800 for a 1 bedrooom/Studio to $5000+ for a penthouse. Short term leases are easy to come by, and usually increase the rent by 10-20%.
You can move further out, in areas like Herdon or Reston - but that comes with a price - cheaper living sure, but longer commutes, and not so great access to public transportation comes to mind.
Maryland is another option, but as DCs crime rate goes down, most of metro DC Maryland's crime is going up!
DC itself is a great place to live. You can easily find an apartment (new or old) that fits your needs. DC is even nice enough to put together a site where you can get information on city services, rentals/home ownership and neighborhoods.
jesus, this is almost like spam.
If you're looking for something pricey, Alexandria is defnintely a great place to live. Basically, if you can use public transportation, do so to avoid the awful drivers and traffic jams.
EDIT: also, if you're not too picky, craigslist is a decent place to find a place for a short amount of time. I found a fairly inoffensive roommate there who I lived with for the summer. Just make sure you check the place out.
I only mention it cause its got good metro access to D.C.
edit: fuck yes 5 Guys all the way.
And this is coming from someone who'll down half a Ledo's pizza without a thought--which is what my suggestion would be for greasy restaurants. Well, that and Chipotle, but that's both not that greasy, and Slung and I have already had it out about it, so nevermind. :P
I won't argue with that statement. For me, that's part of the attraction.
Anyways, our budget will allow for about $1,500 a month in rent and we're definitely interested in something closer to the center of D.C. (her internship is directly south of Dupont Circle NW). Can anyone recommend any areas should we look at?
BTW: For reference, the address of the place is 1337 Connecticut Ave, Washington D.C. 20036. Yeah, it's 1337
Edit: OMG this place is right down the fucking street from the White House
You can live anywhere and be within a 45 minute commute.
5 guys french fries-> crazy delicious. The burgers are great as well, but I come for the fries.
My suggestion would be to look for private rental condo's. When I left in May, the condo market was booming, but in a bad way. Lots of inventory. Folks were looking to flip a condo and make big $$$ but it wasn't working out that way. You might be able to find someone who bought a condo, tried to sell it and couldn't, and is now renting it just to pay the mortgage.
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/search/apa?query=metro
I live in DC, in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood (Mt. Pleasant St. NW). Yes, there are lots of hispanic people *gasp!* but I never have felt unsafe here. Lots of [suburban] people feel like the city is unsafe - and if that's not racist, it's at least racial. Don't believe everyone who says that DC is the ghetto and you will get shot if you live here. Yes, there is crime - especially in the shitty neighborhoods. Fuck living in the suburbs - it's a bitch/expensive to get into the city to go to work or do anything cool. $1500 is easily doable in rent if you are living together - my girlfriend and I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and pay $1000 a month, and this place is not a craphole.
As for where to look for apartments, I would suggest looking at apartments.com or something like that. Basically my suggestion would be to look for places in NW DC (addresses ending in NW!), and anything west of 13th Street. Look for places that are around your target price ($1500) and then go check them out for yourself - see if you're comfortable with the neighborhood. Concentrate on a neighborhood or two. That's what we did - we were looking around and one of the building managers told us to come to the place we live at now, and they had a vacancy.
tl;dr - DC Rocks.
I found an apartment complex called The Heights, right across the street from the Catholic University of America on Taylor St NE. It had some nice options, furnished units available, high speed internet, reasonable prices and short term leases, but that was just a preliminary find.
Anywho... since I'd be going with her, I'd also like to take the opportunity to do something useful with my time, so I think I'm going to shoot for an internship as well. Can anyone recommend any firms to look into regarding internships in the IT field? IT meaning installation and mantainence of computer hardware/software, not programming and circuit design and the like.
I saw that The Brookings Institution (which is 1 block away from where my fiancee will be interning... nice) had the perfect internship slots, but I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. Any other firms I should look into, or links to sites regarding internships?
Look into internship for SAIC. We are all over the DC metro area.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
Also, you could check for work with the federal government. I'd do that soon though, cause getting hired by the government can be a long process.
but if you want decent money as an intern, you should hit up the private companies.
1) Regarding public transportation in DC... we have METRO which is both rail and bus service but outside of the city proper the rail service leaves a lot to be desired. I don't really have any experience with the bus service so I'm not sure about that. Back to the rail, it's really more of a "commuter" transportation than it is anything else. If you're outside of DC city limits you're really not going to be able to walk to anything from most of the metro stations, with some exceptions. Therefore, you may want to think about getting a cheap car.
2) The area around Catholic U. isn't the greatest. I realize that this can probably be debated but the truth is that I probably wouldn't live there. There are better areas in DC with rent that compares to the Catholic U. area. I personally live in Springfield, VA, which is about 20 minutes from the heart of the city via car and has decent metro rail access.
3) Traffic around DC sucks. BIG TIME. It's one of the worst cities in the nation traffic-wise. Especially during rush hour.
4) I work in the translation industry so if your girlfriend needs any info, contact me.
5) Five Guys is awesome. As is Cafe Japone (23rd & P, I think) for sushi.
Companies you could look into, off the top of my head:
SAIC
Raytheon
Boeing
Lockheed Martin
Accenture
Avanade
Deloitte
Bearing Point
BAE Systems
AOL
Sprint/Nextel
Some of these companies might not have offices within DC proper, but definitely in the area. There are tons of other companies you can look into as well.
I graduated from Herndon High in '01, I lived in the weird part of Reston that went to the non-Reston high school for some reason.
I only ask cause I did all the drawings for the renovated Takoma Park Community Center on Pennsylvania Ave
jesus that thing was a bitch and a half