Washington D.C. Overview

On Wednesday, September 14, 2011, I moved from California to Washington D.C. Di Yin had a fellowship that required her to be on-site for a year. I moved with her and worked out of my company's office there.

Most people when I told them that I was moving to Washington D.C. said that it must be nice going back to my childhood home. Childhood home--hah! When growing up in northern Virginia, I rarely made trips into Washington D.C. Sure, when I was less than ten years old, I made trips with my parents or my school to visit museums. But I never visited when I was a teenager and certainly never got to see the side of the city that I'd experience when living there. Living in Washington D.C. would be like living in any new-to-me city. Growing up in northern Virginia did not give me a special relationship to the city. The only thing it gave me was a few good reasons to leave D.C. (to visit restaurants and whatnot that I remember liking in northern Virginia).

I visited Washington D.C. for about a week in 2007. That overview post contains impressions of D.C. that based on that trip. This post contains the impressions I have after living in D.C.

I like living in Washington D.C. Fundamentally, it's an easy and comfortable place to live. Plus, it's pretty. And I don't just mean the monuments and government buildings. Whole swathes of the city--commercial and residential--are simply attractive places to walk around.

Below, I'll elaborate specifically on what I think about particular aspects of Washington.

Washington's Feel
I like how much of the city has symbolic significance. I did not say historic importance. Sure, some buildings are famous for a particular event that occurred there. But there are many more sites of symbolic significance: memorials honoring a particular class of people (e.g., police officers, members of the navy), monuments honoring the whole of particular peoples (ethnic groups, etc.), etc.

With the innumerable monuments and memorials (and associated plaques), historic buildings, and (free) museums, Washington D.C. is chock-full of site-specific Game clue sites. It's a great city for a Game.

I'll discuss the feel of particular neighborhoods in Washington D.C. in other posts (Penn Quarter and Chinatown, Dupont Circle, Georgetown, Old Town Alexandria, everything else).

Federal Government
Washington D.C. is truly a capital city. Maybe my recent trip to Paris made me more attuned to this, but when walking around D.C. one is very aware one's at the seat of power of government. No other U.S. city has the number of monumental buildings that D.C. has. It's an entirely different feeling.

More than just the seat of power, Washington D.C. is clearly a government-centered city. Walking around downtown at almost any time on a weekday, most people one sees are wearing clearly-government-issued ID cards around their necks. As more evidence, there are advertisements on many bus stations advocating to preserve federal government jobs. (I assume these are here not just to target legislators but to show employees their union money goes visibly to lobbying.)

Being government-centered, it's no surprise that there's a lot of security. Sometimes it's a bit off over the top. I once had to go through security to mail a package at a UPS shop. (It was located in a federal building.) Another time I tried to go to a chocolate shop with an address at the Pentagon. It turned out to be behind security, thus only selling to people with the appropriate credentials. I guess it's a big enough market.

Naturally, with so many people employed by the government or people who know people who are, politics is a frequent topic. I overhear political discussions much more often at lunch at work here than elsewhere. Furthermore, the people here seem to be more aware of the detailed goings-on and minor, short-term news stories. People here pay more attention to names, places, and events. They know the names of many congressman and senators, not just those from their states or who are head of the parties. Politics is in the air.

Another aspect of Washington D.C is that it's not part of any state; it's national. Elsewhere in the country I thought visiting a National Park was something special. In D.C. it's not--nearly every nice park is run by the Feds.

The People
Washington D.C. is diverse in a different way than other major American cities: it has a higher percent of African-Americans than San Francisco and even New York, but fewer immigrants (e.g., Chinese). D.C. also has lots of (apparently) homeless people. They generally seem to be in better condition/healthier/less scruffy than those in San Francisco.

Food
The restaurant scene in Washington D.C. is acceptable. Most of the places we tried were fairly good. We didn't find as many amazing / top-notch places as in the bay area, but that could be because I wasn't in D.C. that long. Nevertheless, I found some good stars; I'll share the restaurant highlights in a separate post. While in D.C., I missed a little of the bay area's diversity of cuisines. D.C. does have representatives from nearly all cuisines but from what I read those restaurants aren't as good as the ones that can be found in the bay area. D.C.'s also missing a few cuisines; for instance, although I know they exist, there so few Vietnamese restaurants in the city that I never stumbled across one. Washington D.C. is supposedly famous for its Ethiopian restaurants, but in our experience there are an equal number of them in the bay area and the bay area ones tend on average to be a bit better. On the other hand, there are more Southern restaurants here than in the bay area, a fact we didn't end up exploiting much.

There's greater culinary diversity in Virginia and Maryland's suburbs. It's true; I can vouch for some (authentic) Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants we visited in the suburbs, cuisines that aren't well represented in the city. Virginia is also where we went for Asian grocery stores.

Washington D.C. has a farmers market scene. Most neighborhoods have a weekly market, and the larger ones are on par with California's. Naturally, most (but not all thankfully) markets close during the winter. The ones that stay open are a good size and have a decent selection of winter vegetables and meats. I'll write more about farmers markets later as well.

A noticeable fraction of restaurants are closed for dinner and on weekends, an indication of the size of Washington D.C.'s commuter class. Though other cities I've been in also have lunch-only restaurants, this city's fraction of them is the largest. Hence, the city is slightly more active/exciting during the day rather than at night, but this effect is relatively minor--it's still a major city and therefore has things going on at all times of day and evening.

By the way, a sizable fraction of Thai restaurants have pun-y names: Thaiphoon, Thai Tanic, Mai Thai, Beau Thai, etc. I never tried any of them.

Weather
It was a great time of year to arrive. The fall temperatures were nice. The balmy, warm, humid days in September pleased Di Yin. "Good for the skin," she said. I said, "bad for my hair."

It remained fairly nice through the rest of fall, and even through most of winter. It was a surprisingly mild winter, with many days with a high of 50. February 1st hit 70!

I enjoy that, unlike the bay area, the weather is pleasantly changing. One day it can be cold and two days later the highs are twenty degrees warmer.

I also really liked the clouds. Washington D.C. regularly has interesting clouds. This makes for nice sunsets but also makes it pleasant to simply look out the window in the middle of the day.

Summer was unpleasantly hot, often reaching record highs. We saw many days in June that hit a hundred degrees.

Transportation
Washington D.C. is geographically well designed. With a regular rectangular grid and systematic street naming (1st, 2nd, etc.; A Street, B Street, etc.) it's easy to know where an address is. The occasional diagonal boulevards make it easier and faster to get places on foot than a purely rectangular grid.

It's nice to walk. Sidewalks are wide. I loved how all the crosswalks count down. Not some of them--all. Moreover, I noticed less time is given to pedestrians late at night: a smart traffic engineering decision given the relatively fewer number of pedestrians compared to cars at night.

The metro system made getting most places easy. They run frequently and transfers aren't too roundabout. I like the metro stations' design, especially the arched, vaulted, patterned ceilings and curved, recessed walls. I read that the architecture, including the recessed, even lighting, likely contributes to the system having less crime than comparable metro systems and also less crime than would be expected given socioeconomic factors.

Also, the metro system is clean.

By the way, the subway stations are quite deep. It's neat to ride the long escalators that bring one from ground level to station level.

Biking in D.C. is also a-okay. Sure, the Mall and waterfront are nice, but I've also biked through downtown D.C. during rush hour on roads with bike lanes or roads simply labeled bike routes. The bike lanes are much nicer than those in most cities: rather than a single lane for bikes squeezed between parked cars and traffic, the bike lanes in both directions are side-by-side and separated from the cars by metal poles. The bike routes are okay too; these are roads with numerous lanes that have relatively low traffic even during rush hour. I found it easy to claim a lane as a biker.

Also, in the wider metropolitan area, I love all the railroad right of ways & canal towpaths that have been converted into bike trails. They made nice, straight, flat, often pretty rides.

Life
Every weekend there was at least one rally/protest/march. I didn't go hunting for them but, because I lived close to the Mall, I often ran into them. Likewise, many weekends we found a festival on Pennsylvania Avenue near our apartment.

I loved that most of the grassy areas on the National Mall are available for sports. Sometimes I played ultimate there. Most cities would prohibit all activities that might damage the grass. Not Washington.

Washington D.C. has many free public lectures due to the presence of the Smithsonian institutions and because it's a requisite stop on any book tour about politics or policy. I didn't end up going to many though: only three, all art-related. The Smithsonian also has a number of pricy lectures or classes; I didn't do any of these.

Seemingly the day spring arrived, just as the cherry blossoms started to bloom, the tourists descended. Busloads of them on sidewalks in many places throughout the city. Crowds in museums. On the way to work, I walk down a street with a tourist bus loading area and also cultural sites related to Lincoln. During the season, I often crossed the street to avoid the people, though sometimes they covered both sides I'd have to weave between them.